Fibonacci
by squigglysquid
Summary: Commander Jana Shepard lost everything when she lost her husband and mate, Garrus. Her will to life, all of her fight, and, slowly, she is losing the war against the Reapers. That is, until she and her only remaining support, Tali, come in contact with a strange Prothean artifact that changes everything by throwing them into a realty that changes everything. (Gift for Hoxadrine)
1. Chapter 1

The Citadel was lost, Cerberus wiping out all resistance, killing the Council, and taking control. It was only a matter of time before all those who didn't fit into their regime would be slaughtered. Without the Normandy, struggling to be the spearhead of the war everyone wanted it to be, was nowhere to be seen, not in time to push back the Cerberus coup and safe the only form of political cohesion the failing galaxy needed to maintain order.

It was just another notch on the list of failures Jana Shepard - her real surname of Vakarian not well known and often discarded for convenience - was drowning in, but she just couldn't find it in herself to care. So they lost the Citadel. It was just one more assurance that they would lose this war. First was the loss of whatever evidence they could have found on Mars, the loss of Kaidan Alenko to his injuries, Cerberus' claim to some sort of Prothean artifact and deaths of Eden Prime's population, and kidnapping of all the biotic students of Grissom Academy. Add that to the destruction of Palaven and near the entirety of the turian people, death of the one female krogan not affected by the Genophage, and murder of both Mordin and Wrex - by her own hand - to ensure the krogan never recovered from said Genophage, dooming them to extinction in this war. To top that off, Cerberus managed to set off of a turian bomb remaining from the Krogan Rebellions and wipe out numerous camps of both male soldiers and female 'breeders'.

Said bomb had nearly wiped out her own team if not for the fact that she sacrificed the Primarch's son's squad. Primarch Victus was never the wiser when she told him that his son had died trying in vain to disarm and then sacrificing himself in order to give them time to escape. No, she flat out left him and his men to fend for themselves against Cerberus while the clock ticked down. How could really fault her when she was supposed to be the leader of the resistance against the Reapers? Was she to throw it all away to save a small -when compared to the whole galaxy- number of krogan?

Although, perhaps death would be better than the existence she lived now, counting the seconds and days until she could return to the only happiness she had found in the whole damn galaxy.

She never claimed to be good at what she does. It was by sheer luck and determination that she took down Saren and the only reason they called her a hero and the only one that could have gotten it done was because she was the only one actually _going after him_. Well, her and her small band of rejects and outcasts with stars in their eyes and hope in their hearts.

Funny how blind optimism and confidence in one's abilities fail when reality hits someone right in the face. Now she looks back at her actions, thought to be so diplomatic, courageous, and honorable, with nothing but understanding of how utterly foolish she was.

There was only one person she felt that, with them at her back, she could accomplish anything. She even credits him for the victory they had at the Citadel and all those missions leading up to it even though he denies all of said responsibility. Sure, he had his faults just as she did, but, together, they practically won the fight against Saren. No matter who was their third, it was always the two of them working like a well-oiled machine, never faltering and never failing.

That is, until she died.

Looking back now, she knows that's where it all began. How could she blame the direction their lives, and in her case death, took when they had no control, where nothing but the pawns of some twisted higher power?

He wasn't beside her when it happened, when the Collectors attacked the Normandy. He was on the Citadel, working to become what he had always imagined for himself, a Spectre. Their parting had been bitter sweet, she both proud and saddened that he was taking the step at fulfilling his dreams despite whatever his damn father believed or wanted. When news got to him of her painful and devastating death, she knows he mourned in the only way he knew how, by turning his rage and agony outward in something that would make her proud.

Garrus was more than an ally, friend, and squad mate. He was her mate, her husband, and her life. They had met one night long before she ever even heard the name 'Saren'. She was dragged into celebrations over her N-7 designation by her fellow soldiers, both new comrades and old, and happened to find herself swimming in too many 'Thessia Sunrises'. A off-duty cop happened to see her drunkenly thrashing on the dance floor and decided to join her, though she knows he was more entertained by her futile attempts at rhythm and pose than anything else.

Still, when he helped her to a cab and typed in her hotel address, she can't say why she had the courage to take his wrist and all but demand his extranet address. She can blame the alcohol for it, but she truly blesses her drunken brashness because it marked the beginning of a romance that was both awkward and rewarding in every way she could ever ask for and more.

That is until she lost him.

Believing they were as prepared for their venture into the Omega-4 Relay, all preparations made and matters in order, they rushed to rescue their crew and end the Collector threat once and for all. Even she was surprised at the control she had over the situation at the time, falling fluidly into command despite the belief that it was all a one-way trip whether they succeeded or not. That is, until a stray shot hit her one love, her reason to live and fight.

Falling like a stone, he had cupped his bleeding waist with a groaning hiss of pain and she was at his side in an instant, throwing aside her weapon in panic. She held him in her arms even as he joked and smiled up at her with blood stained mandibles, telling her to 'snipe one for him'. As his life slowly slipped through her fingers like spilling sand, she cried, wailed and screamed, in agony and devastation.

To the other side, a place she could not reach, he took with him her will to live, to fight, and care for the life of others. As a result, she never flinched when she took the lives of three hundred thousand, never shed a tear when told of the millions dying during the Reapers onslaught, and struggled to even find reason every night to take the gun from her head and merely walk the sleeping Normandy in search for a man that would never be there.

Now, she rides the shuttle down to the surface of Talis Fia, a volus colony, after some Prothean artifact at the end of their exploratory probe launched to the surface. Did she actually care to bring the damn thing aboard or waste the time? No, but it was something that was deemed worthy of her attention by Admiral Hackett for the benefit of some fruitless weapon construction, so she dragged herself to the task.

Sitting in the bucking shuttle with Tali, the only one she trusts or looks to for companionship after everything that's happened even though she doesn't completely fill the hollow Jana has, her hand itches to reach up to the chain around her neck where a pair of rings clatter against her dog tags.

It's all she has of Garrus Vakarian, not even able to bring back his body to spread in the billowing winds of his homeplanet as ashes, and the only thing that holds her together. In the coldest nights and moments of loss so painful she can't breathe, she wishes he had forgone the stigma and cultural teachings against the old tradition of 'marking' mates with teeth and scars. He thought it too old-fashioned, didn't want to cause her any sort of pain no matter if it was for a good cause, but she now regrets not having a reminder in her flesh of the love they shared, of the life they had could have had after it all.

"Shepard?" Tali's voice brings her out of her dark thoughts and she turns to look at her young friend in time to see her fiddle with her shotgun's heat sink canister. "Are you sure it's safe for us to go this alone? I mean-"

"I usually take three?" the redhead supplies as she pulls her helmet on. "Well, this is different."

That's all she says, but Tali doesn't seem to like that answer and instead looks up at the beaten Spectre, eyes narrowing in either suspicion or a frown. Maybe a mix of both. "Jana…" she admonishes, getting that tone that says she won't drop the issue.

"Fine," the Commander jerks up to her feet. "I don't want to be around them. Is that so hard to understand?!" Tali has long since gotten used to the rapid changes in her mood and doesn't even so much as flinch, head swiveling to watch Shepard pace. "You've been with me through it all…" She frowns and stutters in her steps, knowing the only other person who was with her through even more isn't here.

Jana clenches her hands into fists as she shakes her head curtly, forcing that pain to the back of her mind. "Look, this is just a retrieval mission. The only problem is the ammonia, but that's what suits are for. I don't see a reason for the others to be involved." She sighs and her shoulders droop. "Not when I just want to try and catch my breath."

Green eyes beneath her helmet closed, she doesn't know Tali has moved until a slender hand takes her own, a second joining to cup her five fingered hand. "I understand."

Long gone are the condolences and sympathy. Tali knows Commander Jana Shepard neither needs nor wants that from the only one she considers a friend in this rapidly shattering galaxy. She looks aside to the smaller woman and silently nods. It may not be the same emotion and loss, but Tali, too, lost a friend that she confided in and Jana understands that it gives them at least some sort of connection.

Releasing her, Tali steps back to her weapon and holsters it. "So," she changes the subject and offers Jana a reprieve. "If I remember correctly from what you said on the Normandy, we're after a Prothean artifact?"

"An obelisk, to be more exact. Hackett says the Volus engineers on the Crucible think it will help with the construction." She shrugs and grabs the overhead supports as the shuttle drops into the turbulence of the planet. "I'm just thinking it's a way to cool down after the shitstorm on Tuchanka."

"They uncovered it? Like a dig site?"

"Sounds like it."

" _Commander,"_ Cortez, the shuttle pilot, says over the intercom and safety of the cockpit, door closed to keep from the often short-tempered, brusque Commander. " _We are closing in on the excavation site. No hostiles coming up on radar."_

"Sounds like an easy drop," Jana deadpans as she hits the hatch's release to the sight of a deeply dug dig site covered in a thick, greyish fog that clings to the ground. From the looks of it all, it seems that whoever fronted the credits for this archaeological endeavor has long abandoned it. Perhaps even before the Reaper occupation, but she is only going off of assumption and consideration for the cutthroat nature of those that call this place home as stated by codex information of Talis Fia.

"Let's just get in and out before the storm hits," she adds as she checks her Tool for the readings from their probe of the drastically changing temperature and pressure in the atmosphere that marks a building storm. In the far off distance, a rumbling of thunder can be heard.

The hovering of the shuttle above the ground disturbs the haze, sending it rolling like a sea that laps at their legs when they drop down. Solid ground they can't see greets them and their legs disappear in the miasma, but Jana doesn't consider it much of an issue as she looks around and into the pit before them.

Rising up from the waters of the blanket of fog, a sharply angled pillar stabs at the dark sky. It is four-sided, tall, and comes to a sharp point at the highest point and is made of the same, reflective and interesting material of the beacon on Eden Prime and structures within the ruins on Ilos. All pointing to the confirmation that this very construction is, to her sparse knowledge, Prothean.

"Keelah. Look at it," Tali says in awe as she looks it over. "It's massive."

The Spectre nods in agreement. "Definitely bigger than the Beacon on Eden Prime." She looks over the edge and down into where the excavation team had dug down to uncover the entirety of the structure. "Shall we see how far down it goes? Odds are it sure as hell won't fit into the Normandy, but if Hackett wants it so damn bad, he needs to know how big it is."

Nodding, Tali pulls up her Omni-Tool and, in a moment, the glowing orb of Ka'cheeka –her drone- appears. "Just in case," she explains. "I'll send her ahead to map out the path."

Shepard steps aside to let the drone whip past as she unholsters her assault rifle, 'just in case'. Tali is next, helmet in her Tool as she uses the readout of the landscape to navigate them. Jana is one step behind, constantly scanning as far ahead and behind as possible with the billowing fog.

The descent is a slow one, any step the one that will send them over the edge of the small ledge that spirals down and around the perimeter of the dug out crater of the excavation. Here and there where the rock wall has given out and fallen under the weight of workers are scaffolds that easily hold their weight, but still creak under their feet as they pass. One good thing is the fact that they at least can't see how far down they'd be falling should they misstep or be the straw that breaks the proverbial back of the site's rockside.

"How much longer until we're at the bottom?"

"Almost… there…"

Suddenly, Tali's drone shines through the fog as it risen up and through the layer of haze just a handful of meters forward down the path. Its sudden appearance lends to there still being a incline they'll need to climb down, but when Tali looks up from her Tool to give Jana a nod, she knows they are close. She pats the woman's shoulder and motions behind her in silent order to fall into their usual ground team arrangement, slowly advancing when she hears the sound of Tali's shotgun expanding.

"Nice and slow," she barely says, her tone too low to hear out of her helmet, but still picked up by her comm just as thunder cracks, the sounds growing closer. "There could be animals taking shelter for the storm."

"Ka'cheeka didn't pick up anything…"

 _Complacency leads to failure_ , Jana thinks with a deep guilt burning in her chest, but she pushes it aside as she advances and descends down the slight dip in the rock supported and surrounded by man - or, in this case, volus - made structures. She knows they have reached flat ground both by the feel of the ground beneath her boots no longer giving a slight slope, but by the massive pulley system climbing the far wall of the cavern, large buckets that lay half filled with dirt and debris sitting in wait for the return of life to this site.

Strewn about the bottom of this massive hole are small prefabs for what had to have been a scientific crew here to examine and study the obelisk. Jana didn't expect any different of those who found it. The idea of the knowledge within Prothean artifacts just too tempting to abide by the Council laws of no contact except that of Council representatives and science teams. Whatever might have been learned by those long gone aside, there is hope this holds information that can aid in the construction of the Crucible.

It is a hope that Jana does not bother in sharing. Better to anticipate disappointment than have one's expectations shattered.

"It's massive." Tali holds her shotgun against her side as she scans the obelisk with her Tool and the sky flashes with cloud to cloud lightning and sounds with the constant rumbling of the storm. "You think it could help with the Crucible?"

"No." Her curt response gets a look of question, but she ignores it as she steps closer to the artifact, shouldering her rifle. "But Hackett and the scientists do, so if it'll make them feel like we all have a chance in this damn war, then they can come get it. I'll get Cortez to bring the beacon they'll be using to find this thing."

"Shepard," Tali says sadly, lowering her glowing hand. "It's okay to have hope."

"It's useless and only sets you up for pain," she responds as she taps on her own Omni-Tool to call up her connection to the shuttle's comm channel. "Now finish your scan so we can get the hell out before it starts to pour acid rain or something."

"I-"

At that moment, there is an explosion of blinding, white light that engulfs them and a searing pain that shoots through their bodies. Screams of agony pierce the air at the same time that air is sucked from their lungs and their ears ring with a stabbing of pain that cuts through their skulls. It's not even the same feeling as dying.

Oh no, this is so, so much worse. Compared to this feeling of being flayed open and scattered about, dying in the vacuum of space felt like merely falling asleep.

Just as sudden as they are seemingly unraveled, the threads of their existence pulled apart, the pain grinds to a halt, leaving nothing but a dizzying confusion and numbness in its wake. The feeling is not unlike the one she felt waking from her death sleep on the cold slab with Miranda's voice slicing into her already pounding head.

Groaning, Jana first clenches her eyes shut tightly before slowly opening them to take in her situation and surroundings. It's an instant before she just knows something is _wrong_.

Above, a storm still builds in the darkened clouds with flickers of lightning and murmurs of thunder, but she knows it's not the same sky she's laying here staring at that there should be. The ammonia in the air gave both a sickly pallor to the sky - no matter the weather - and left the ground blanketed in a heavy fog of grey, but here is a crisp charcoal sky like one she'd once seen above thriving planets like Eden Prime, Earth, and Virmire.

Hands curling over the ground, she frowns in confusion at the lack of awareness of her surroundings, that loss of control something that has always been something to strive against ever suffer ever since-

"Keelah," Tali gasps as she slowly sits up beside her, her head swiveling perhaps too fast if she's suffering the same pounding headache Jana it. If the quarian is, she doesn't show it. "Where are we?!"

Slowly pulling herself up to sit, as if her limbs are limp and heavy at her sides, Jana looks around. Her eyes widen in shock at what lays around them. "What the…"

When she considers that the only thing she recognizes is the towering Prothean obelisk at their sides, she quickly wonders if she truly is dead or unconscious and currently victim of a very _vivid_ injury induced dream. Surrounding them aren't the metal and plastic structures made for easy building and transporting but actual _tents_. As in the ones made of heavy fabrics and pulled taut into shelter by thick, sturdy wooden stakes as tall if not taller than herself. She doesn't know anyone that doesn't have the credits for even the smallest of prefabs and hasn't even heard of anyone resorting to needing to go through the labor of what just making a tent would entail.

Yet, even that wasn't all that told her she was no longer on Talis Fia. Instead of the rocky, mostly flat and barren land that had greeted them when they dropped down planetside, they are surrounded by the steady rise and fall of rocky hills that rise tall enough around them to block out a full three sixty view of their surroundings and stand just below what she'd call the mountains that can clearly be seen in the distance. Wherever this Prothean obelisk is, it isn't in a dig site of any sort, but a flattened plateau in the rocky hills that has been cleared long enough for grass to have grown and the sparse few trees to grow. On the tallest rises she even sees the sparse cropping of, could it be, snow?

Too thrown by everything around them, of just what in the hell happened to them, she doesn't consider doing as Tali does when she pulls up her Omni-Tool and tries running scans and sending out a signal. Her frustrated grunt of surprise is what pulls Shepard's attention and she looks over to the younger woman just in time to see and hear her huff heavily as she closes her Tool interface. "I can't get a signal. But that's impossible. Even the most distant planets are close enough to _some_ kind of communications relay to at least get the most basic signal."

"So we have no idea where we are," Jana supplies just as they hear the heavy sounds of armor, but something's off.

The usual creaks and heavy thuds of someone in armor is something she knows as well as her own heartbeat, but this is different. The armor sounds heavier, made of something else but the lightweight polymer weaves that every set of armor, from the most advanced to the near scrap of Omega. It's almost as if whoever is coming is wearing pots and pans like a young child would play Spectre and Mercs in.

Quickly grabbing her assault rifle, she swings the heavy weapon towards the threat as she jumps to a crouch. When she sights down the incoming target, she nearly drops her weapon to the floor where her jaw seems to have dropped to like a stone. She doesn't even hear Tali's question and shocked gasp over her own rapid fire of mental blabbering as it short circuits in utter flabbergastation. One only sees this kind of thing in the movies.

Walking steadily towards them, up the slight incline from the camp of tents to the obelisk's plateau, is a group of three armored individuals, one woman and two men. Yet, this isn't just any armor. That would be believable.

No, they are in _knights'_ armors, or, at least, something like it.

 _That's it, I've gone crazy… That or Indoctrinated by some fantasy loving Reaper._

"Hold it!" she shouts as she jerks her weapon up, taking aim at the three that slowly raise their hands and slow their approach. They are close, but she still can't make out there faces from the distance and still searing migraine from her fall down the rabbit hole. Seeing them closing in, yet not reaching for their guns, she barks, "One more step and I put a neat little hole in-"

Her words cut off with a sharp intake as they come into view and she recognizes one of the three as a ghost in a set of armor painted with white and crimson patterns. It's as if she were thrown back three years, ignoring the strange environment and the woman's get up, because she's looking right at the woman she doomed to death on Virmire, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams.


	2. Chapter 2

"What the hell is going on here?" Jana says in shock and exasperation. Standing before her is, now that she actually can get over her confusion to look, not only a resurrected and fully armored - in some medieval getup - Ashley Williams standing at the side of some strange man, but _James Vega_ stands on the opposite side.

Williams wears a smooth, dark grey set of heavy armor that adds a great deal of size to what Jana remembers was an already well toned woman. Red and white paint accents the leather bands of the fur draped around her waist and a massive sword that definitely needs two hands to wield lays against her back. Her familiar bun is replaced by a braid wrapped over her crown so that that full face helmet hanging from a strap on her hip would easily secure in place.

James, too, wears a set of armor, but where Ashley's is a smooth set that embodies the very idea of 'knight', he's seems more distinct. Hell, how else could she describe him as he wears the hide of a huge bear over his shoulders. The squared off and overlapping plates of his chest piece are barely visible beneath the massive paws, and his armored legs are draped in fur lined flaps of leather. Metal shoulder guards lead down to a more comfortable and flexible set of leather gauntlets and an open faced helmet - unsurprisingly covered in the head of the bear - lays against his thigh just like Ashley's. Where she had a sword strapped to her back, an even more intimidating hammer peaks out from behind his shoulder.

At least, she considers, he still sports a type of tattoo as it crawls up his neck and over one eye.

The stranger, a man with a scar cutting down one cheek and across the bridge of his nose, wears a charcoal piece - emblazoned with a golden depiction of some fantasy animal Jana vaguely remembers from vidas - that combined chest and belly guards. He has a chainmail guard over his groin with a thick, red and white belt to hold his own sword's scabbard at his hip. A large, diamond shaped shield sits on his back in contrast to the rest of his team's massive, back mounted weaponry. His own helmet - one that reminds her of the old roman ones from Earth's history - hangs on his opposite hip.

"We aren't here to fight," the unknown man says, quirking a slight smile. "In fact, you may be able to help us."

"Fat chance."

"Shepard," Tali whispers at her side, gun drawn to help stave away the known strangers. "They're-"

"Tali?" The man gasps and his eyes widen in shock at the sound of her voice.

"How… do you know my name?"

Yet another form comes running up the hill, a blur of blue and white as a voice that, once again, is recognizable shouts. "Shepard! We must hurry! The Shadow Hounds are-" Liara's - or, at least, _this_ Liara - closes to mere steps away from the others like her as she looks down on them in confusion.

Unlike the other three, she wears an intricate, hooded robe with swirling patterns inlaid within the thinner armor that protects her torso. Gold and a dark blue swirl and create beautiful patterns against the white of her long robes and a rose shaped staff sits on her back. "Who-"

"We can talk later," Ash cuts off, eyeing Jana and Tali still as her hands twitches in unsure anticipation to draw her weapon.

"Ashlin is right," the supposed 'Shepard' says as he steps closer to Jana.

"I said not a step closer! I _will_ shoot you!"

A low buzz starts to pulse in her head and she feels an all too familiar static across her skin. She doesn't need to turn and look to know what's happening as she knows it all too well from experience, the Prothean artifact is activating - or, at least, doing _something_ strange and probably not too good for them. The four look over their shoulders as Liara's eyes widen and shouts, "It's activated! We need to get the runes!"

"The what?" Jana glances to Tali and sees in her eyes a mirror of her same confusion. A passing of 'what the hell are they talking about' going between the two.

"Jameson," the Shepard says, head snapping to the James of this weird world. "Get to the horses. We are going to get out of here quick before the Shadow Hounds trap us up here."

This version of James Vega nods and, despite a gun pointed at him, turns and runs down the hill. _Is my weapon made of plastic or something? They don't even fear it._ Just as the fur cloaked back disappears over the rise, her weapon snaps to this Shepard as her eyes narrow, mere seconds away from putting a bullet between his eyes just out of principal. No one just ignores her as if she weren't Commander Fucking Shepard, no matter where she is or whoever this man that has the same name really is.

Hands tightening around her weapon, she steps forward with intent to either shoot some respect into these insane people or beat it out of them with her gloved fists - and damn the consequences of the action against the metal of their armor. Just as the man looks back to her, his eyes snap over her shoulder and his hand unsheathes his sword in a flash of metal.

"I said don't fucking _move!_ " No longer willing to be treated like a damn joke, she pulls the trigger with the force of her anger, but something happens. Or, better yet, something _doesn't_ happen.

Her weapon does not fire, emit a sound, nor show any signs of even being active. Knowing that no battle leaves room for confusion, she tosses the weapon aside and grabs her pistol, raising it, sighting down the barrel, and firing.

Again, nothing happens.

"What… Shepard?" Behind her, she hears Tali's voice and the ejection of a heat sink, most likely in attempt to see the cause of their weapons' malfunction. "Something's wrong…"

"Tell me something I don't know," she says aside as the three above them draw their weapons and begin to surround them. Guns or not, she is ready for them and tosses her pistol to the ground and removes her grenades. The higher tech of their guns may not work, but she's pretty damn sure a simple grenade won't have that problem. "Come closer and I _will_ blast us all to hell."

Her narrowed eyes and ready hands only seem to confuse the Shepard as he slows his approach, lowering his weapon. "We won't hurt you. Please, trust us and we can explain in the best way we can. But we are racing against something beyond our world, something wanting to destroy all mortal life."

"The Reapers," Tali whispers, as if understanding something Jana can not. It may just be because that is the only thing that seems to be on everyone's mind, but there is some ugly, nagging feeling that she has that tells her there may be so much more than the simplest of explanations.

The man's eyes blink in surprise before he nods. "Yes. That's right. Reapers is one name for them."

"Shepard!" This Liara shouts in urgency and both Shepards look to the massive - much bigger than the one that acted like a lightning rod to send them into this crazy wonderland - Prothean obelisk. Jana doesn't even think about the fact that she hasn't addressed herself as 'Shepard' and that the call is definitely not meant for her, but she readies herself for a fight anyways. "It's not here!"

"What?!" Holding his sword down and beside his left leg, the man who had addressed and tried to calm Jane and Tali runs past and around the obelisk to where Liara called from.

Unable to help herself, Jana follows with Tali right beside her and full of the same confusion and curiosity. She needs to know what the hell is happening now - and what that damn obelisk did - to the two of them.

The other Shepard skids to a stop beside this Liara and his eyes dart over the Prothean object, in search for something as Liara wrings her hands and fidgets. "It has to be here," he says in shock

"It's inscription has been… destroyed," Liara whispers in utter shock and her face frowns in despair. "I don't understand who could of-"

Cutting her off is the loud reverberation of metal being struck, the echoing sound snapping the group's head up and towards the opposite corner of the plateau supporting the obelisk. Jana jerks a hand to Tali to have her back as she runs, rounding the corner in time to see Ashley stumbling back from a hit. Running for all she's worth after tossing aside a thick staff, another, unknown woman starts to rush back in the direction the Shepard and his crew came from.

It doesn't take much thought to realize the woman had been lying in wait - most likely ruining whatever runes these people were talking about.

Despite the costume-looking armor, hers and Tali's are lightweight and made of more practical material than the heavy metal and fur of this strange, twilight zone people. It is how they can easily break away from the group with only Liara closing in behind them and, knowing her weapons must be useless, Jana only focuses on her target as her fists tighten in anticipation. Strange copies of people she knows in ancient armor and impractical weapons she may not completely grasp, but taking down an enemy is like home, the only one she truly has now.

They sprint down over the ridge and down towards a camp of tents, ducking in and out of those with dual entry points and slide over wooden tables with paper scrolls browned by age and use, scattering it into the wet grass. This woman is fast, never tiring, and it only spurs Jana on, only fueling her rage at the situation they've been thrown in and the loss of control it brought with it. Everything around her zeros in on the single target as she distantly hears the Shepard shout from behind.

"Don't let her return to Aresn Fort!"

Ahead, further down the near mountainous hill, lies a red stone structure. It has to be the fort that lies as the finish line - and their failure - but whatever is within that threatens their success, she doesn't know. Her only choice is to force her legs to pump faster, to push forward with everything she has.

Even with its lighter material, her armor is becoming heavier as her body tires and, though her rage fuels her to keep moving, her rebellious body is starting to falter. Even now she can hear the growing sounds of the heavily booted feet drawing closer as the fully armored Williams and her unfamiliar companion steadily close the gap. _Damn you and your useless stamina!_

Just as she fears she will lose yet another battle in a war that seems to have left her to her insane dreaming of knights and mages, she hears a bellowing voice. "Coming through!" is all she and the others hear before the thunder of feet and a goliath of a horse collides into the mysterious woman, practically trampling her under the feet of the living tank.

They catch up as Vega, on this massive horse, rounds meters away to come back for another round. The shock of seeing a creature that is believed extinct on Earth is short-lived and quickly replaced by an even greater, unbelievable impossibility: Simply shaking off the trampling of such a heavy creature, the woman stands up. With clothes torn, the shape turns on them and Jana nearly questions this place once again when she sees no blood or torn flesh on the approaching body. No, what she, instead, sees is _rock_ \- hard, jagged rock - revealed by the scraped off skin and clothing from the horse's hooves.

"What the fu-"

 _Is this… Is this like Mars where Eva Core - a synthetic - stole the Prothean data?_

She stutters in her steps as Williams charges forward, swinging her sword down. The blade freezes with a loud clang as metal cuts through the flesh and into the rock of the woman's forearm as she - or it - stops the charge. A heavy from the woman into Ashley's unarmored back of the knee makes it buckle and Ash grunts, dropping her weapon as she tries to catch herself. Distracted, she doesn't anticipate or get a chance to defend when the creature slammed its damaged elbow down on Ash's unshielded head.

Ashley drops like a rock just as the armored Shepard charges, this time with shield in hand and sword coming down for a rounding strike. Vega, too, comes around with his large hammer in his hands as his horse charges without instruction. Jana and Tali are useless without the use of their weapons, a fact made painfully obvious when even Liara comes into the fray with a staff and glowing energy engulfing her form.

However, there is _one_ thing that Jana has that isn't any of her guns and it still sits in her hand. Now it's just a matter of getting the armored idiots out of the way before she blows them all to hell.

"Get away from it! I can take it down!" _Or I might just piss it off,_ but what's the point of fighting if there's no threat of death and return to a sense of happiness? At least she still has the mind to care if she drags others down with her.

Blocking a powerful punch with his shield - the thundering sound echoing against the rises and falls of the hills - the male Shepard looks to her and, for some reason, actually nods once in understanding despite the obvious insanity of two strange women just appearing from thin air to offer aid. With his entire body, he uses his shield to bash the stone woman and force her back. James takes the cue and rounds around to hit it with his massive hammer and send it down to a knee, which gives this Shepard the opening to grab an unconscious and battered Ash by the armor. In a movement that Jana never thought would be possible in such a heavy get up, he runs and drags his teammate behind him with feet digging furrows in the dirt and grass.

"Do it!" He yells as Vega's horse distances himself from the rock creature just as it climbs back up on its feet.

Hitting the pressurized nozzle of the blast grenade - and hoping she's not getting them all killed by throwing a dud - Jana winds her arm back and shoots forward, releasing to send the deadly little piece of tech flying. It hits the woman that isn't a real woman in the chest just as it explodes, engulfing the form in flames that burn away the few remains of cloth and flesh from its body, and the shrapnel it contains embed into its rocky form. That's not even the best reaction they get, either, as a glowing, foreign-looking pattern symbols carved into its chest - and revealed by the destruction of flesh and cloth in the fire - dim and fade. After what seems like an eternity, it finally stumbles back and collapses with a solid thud.

Their success is short lived as the sky begins to darken and pulse in an otherworldly glow that looks of crimson blood and brightens with the flashes of scarlet, cloud to cloud lightning. James gallops over to them as all eyes rise to the ominous storm building and preparing to rage around them, tearing through the sky to engulf them in what Jana is sure won't be a simple rain.

"We have to leave," Liara says as she rushes to the creature that nearly killed them. "We have to take this. These may be the runes!"

"Jameson," this different Shepard says as he loops his hands under William's arms and Jana, without being told or asked, moves to grab her feet. "Collect that thing. We have to move fast to the horses and get back to the others. All our lives are in danger."

"What's happening?" Tali says in a panic as she and Liara quickly help James - _Jameson, apparently_ \- lay the strange monster over the rear of his horse, just behind the saddle. "What _is_ this thing?"

"I'll explain later," Liara whispers as the male Shepard motions with his head to move, pulling Ashley's limp form.

"Those Reapers, you call them? They're creations are closing in. We have to get to our horses and get to the camp before they corrupt the land. If they do, we don't stand a chance." She can only assume that some of this is similar to what the Reapers did to her own galaxy, but she's certain she doesn't want to stick around to find out exactly what the Reapers' destruction looks like here. She at least owes that to Tali to _try_ and put up a fight no matter the weird reality they're in.

The man, grunting as he shifts Ash's heavily armored weight in his hold. "Do you trust me?"

"I have no choice," Jana retorts as they run as best they can with the heavy weight in their arms.

Vega rushes ahead on horseback, calling out as he passes. "I'll get the horses ready. It isn't too far!"

Shepard nods in understanding as Liara and Tali each grab an arm to help carry the weight of the heavily armored woman between them. With all four, they reach the set of four horses faster than they would apart, but still not as fast as they would have hoped given the thundering booms echoing all around them. Without pause, they lay Ashley over the back of one horse and Liara climbs onto another.

Jana looks between the three getting ready to flee on their horses. "What about us?"

The Shepard motions the horses with a quick jerk of his chin as he sticks a foot in a stirrup. "Have you ever ridden one?"

"They're actually dead where I come from," she says, but moves closer at the insistence in his and his squad's movements.

"You'll do fine. Just hold on and the horse will do the rest."

She seriously doubts that, but when he stops, comes over, and gets to a knee to offer a boost onto the horse with the unconscious Williams, she steps up and climbs on. She at least knows enough from vids to understand how to put one leg on each side and secure them in the stirrups Other than that, she is completely out of her element, and she hates the feeling of helplessness.

It's a feeling she's all too familiar with lately, but that still doesn't change the distaste for such a lack of control.

Holding onto the saddle in any way she can and trying her best to balance, she watches as the man climbs onto the second largest horse and offers Tali a hand. He smiles when she worries her hands and says, "It's okay. I'll make sure you don't fall."

"I.. I've never…"

"We don't have time to debate. I'm sorry," he says with a slight frown, closing his hand once before opening again. "We have to go."

Glancing up to the sky one last time, Tali wrings her hands a few times before stepping forward, taking his hand, and letting him pull her up. Following her own Commander, the young quarian straddles the horse's rear directly behind the saddle and looks around on where to grab.

Seeing her dilemma, the man twists and takes one hand, guiding her to grab a strap on the saddle. "Either you can hold here or hold my armor. We'll try to take it as slow as we can, but we have to get ahead of the corrupted."

Tali nods, ducking her head in what Jana knows to be a blush, and grabs a hold of the saddle strap. It's a choice she'd have done too, the fact of holding a stranger's armor just too awkward given the complete lack of understanding of the situation. With understanding made and given, the three kick their horses and begin moving in something definitely faster than a leisurely stroll, but just below an all out run.

Even with her horse moving on its own accord with the group, Jana doesn't expect the movement and practically jumps in her seat, gripping the saddle in a hold of desperation she'd normally wouldn't be caught dead showing around others, let alone complete strangers. Or, at least, this version of them are strangers.


	3. Chapter 3

Thunder claps of hooves trampling the dirt to kick up clods of the ground, but they are covering ground, adding distance between themselves and the blood soaked sky of the Reapers' supposed approach. The beast beneath her grunts with effort and its massive form jostles her with each pound of its feet as it storms beside the steeds of the others.

 _At least_ , Jana thinks pettily, _Tali looks to be in much the same situation as me_ as she sees the quarian gripping onto the man before her with all her might - her eyes wide in terror - in Jana's peripheral.

"How… much… further?" She practically demands between grunts of pain as her crotch hits the hard saddle over and over. She's going to bruise, she can feel it now.

"We're almost there," Shepard says without even showing any of the discomfort of both of the outsiders to this strange place. He kicks his feet to push his horse ever faster and Jana looks forward for any sign of this 'camp' that they claimed they all had little time to return to. She sees nothing until, just over a steep ridge in the growing hills and towards the bottom of a towering mountain, a small collection of packed horses begins to take shape.

Looking to any of them for any sort of sign that this is where they need to be, she sees Vega - _Jameson, I got to remember that_ \- catch her eyes and nod curtly. She isn't so sure if it's good that her expression is so easily read, but she's too focussed on trying not to fly off this damn horse to care.

When they storm into the camp, Shepard pulls back on his reins and his horse slows to a sudden halt, head throwing up in protest as it hops on its front feet just slightly. "Betony! Sela! Gather the horses!" The small group at their horse's feet begin to scramble as two women - who look an awful lot like the two security officers that were lost when Wrex attacked the Normandy with a group of krogan - usher a number of them to rush to collect the standing horses without riders. "Stephen! We need to pack up these supplies and move!"

A man that looks suspiciously like Cortez nods once before uses hands to motion more of their men into collecting papers, scrolls, and packs. They leave the few tents thrown up to create the camp and all begin climbing up into their saddles just as Jana feels like she's gaining control of her horse enough to draw it closer to Shepard's.

"Where are we going? You have a plan? I doubt we'd be very fast on these things."

"They are faster than going by foot," he says as he looks to her, nodding to the west. Or that's what Jana thinks is the west unless the sun of this place doesn't rise like it does on Earth. "But you're right. We need something faster."

"The coast?" The Cortez who isn't Cortez says as he pulls his horse up beside them and Shepard nods.

"We're going back to the Normandy."

"The… Normandy?" Tali looks between the men and Jana, eyes narrowed in confusion. "You have a ship?"

"Of course. Fastest ship in the water." As if that's explanation enough, the Shepard turns his horse around in a tight circle to face his band of men climbing onto their horses - leaving anything invaluable or too difficult to pack in their urgency - and Cortez moves forward in the group's formation.

 _Of course it's not a real ship_. Jana sighs and closes her eyes slowly in exasperation. _Will this place get even weirder?_

With Shepard giving a final look over the group to ensure everyone is in the saddle of one horse or another, he nods to Cortez to get moving. However, what she expects is the full speed ahead pace that brought them here and, what she gets, is a much slower, jogging pace.

Confused, she tries to get her horse up beside Shepard's. Thankfully, Tali no longer seems so panicked, and Jana is glad for that. Nobody deserves to be pulled up on a strange creature by a strange man and then forced to hold onto said man for dear life and fear of the monster beneath them. At least Jana got her own horse.

"Shepard-"

"Please, can me Jonathan. Or Jon," he says with a slight smile and look around his shoulder guard.

"Jon," Jana corrects, considering that it's better than calling him 'Shepard' when she, too, is Shepard. It cuts the confusion. Now to figure out which name she want to go by herself. "If we're in a hurry, why are we just walking? I bet we could cover more ground."

He chuckles and pats the neck of his horse. "Can _you_ run forever without tiring?" She opens her mouth to answer, but stays silent. _Touche._ Seeing the understanding hit, he nods and looks forward again to leave Jana and Tali to share a look of confusion. "See. We have already pushed our horses and we can't chance tiring them more. It'll waste more time than not."

"I thought we were running from the Reapers," Tali seems to ask Jana more than Jon, but he answers anyway.

"We are trying to avoid them. While they corrupt Eathenvale and the rest of Terra, we will hit the coast, skirt the shore, and reach the shore of Athenus." He frowns deeply, taking the loss of what must be the equivalent of her Earth to the Reapers while they all escape as hard as she could imagine had she not already lost everything.

"What about Ash?"

His frown turns to one of confusion as he tries his best to look over his shoulder to Tali. "Who? Ashlin?" She nods and glances to where the motionless woman lays slung over the back of a new horse. "We'll try to make camp when we've covered enough ground and if we can't reach the Normandy. The best we can hope for is to try and make it so that she can hold off until we manage to get to Citadel City."

Jana's eyes jump from Ash to him. "The Citadel?"

He nods. "It's the biggest city in all of Trebia. We'll be able to find help for her as well as approach the Council for aid."

"They need to know," Liara says as she pulls her horse to Jon's other side. "They have to help before the corruption of the Reapers cover the entire land." Her blue eyes turn to Jana. "What of your realm?"

"My what?"

"Realm?" She raises a brow and looks to Jonathan, who offers another example.

"Your… world?"

"Our galaxy." Even Tali seems to understand this strange talk as she offers and Jon and Liara both nod with shrugs.

"Sure. That could work. Is it like all of existence? The plane of mortals?"

"Uh…" Jana shakes her head to toss away all this confusing talk. _Let's just keep this moving._ "Assuming that we're talking of the same thing, what, exactly, are you asking us?"

"Do the Reapers exist in your plane?" Liara looks to Jon in silent question and he nods. "Do you know anything about the obelisk that brought you here?"

"Only that it attracts electricity," Jana deadpans and rubs her temple. "Look, let me explain as best I can. Yes, we had Reapers… and we were losing."

Jon, Liara, and even Tali, all frown and look away from her. It's Liara that speaks first, her voice broken with fear and worry. "So… we might not make it…"

"Don't talk like that, Liara," Jon almost snaps, but, instead of reprimand, his words are filled with that confidence Jana wishes she had in her own 'realm'. "We will defeat them." He looks to Jana with eyes narrowed in determination. "We will succeed."

 _Ouch_ , she thinks half-heartedly. If she truly cared for the galaxy she left behind in a flash of lightning, then maybe she'd be hurt more by her constant failure. As it was, she was just coasting along and trying to find any reason to join her mate and husband in the afterlife that she doesn't think no longer pertains to her.

"We will help," Tali says, pulling her from her thoughts, as her eyes crease in a smile, even if a bit sad at leaving her people in a universe falling apart.

"I thank you and welcome anything you may offer."

"Perhaps information?" Liara adds and he nods in agreement.

Jana snorts in derision at the thought of being any help in that regard, but merely says, "Well, it's not like we're going anywhere any time soon."

Jon nods and shifts in his saddle, the armor probably not that comfortable if even Jana's is chafing. "Much appreciated. Coming through to this realm must not have been easy."

"I still what an explanation of this place," Jana says, eye catching Liara looking her way. "Something on your mind?"

Jonathan looks to the asari as she looks at her hands before backup. "Did it show you anything?"

"Did what? The obelisk?" She nods and Jana shrugs, looking to Tali for agreement. "It was all just a bright light, then looking up at the sky here."

Liara seems to not like that answer as she frowns and nods, but Jon's face lights up as he lightly bumps her shoulder. "Liara. Perhaps EDI can help?"

"EDI? You have an EDI here?" Tali asks softly. Jana doesn't even want to guess what that acronym means, but she's happy to hear that there is just one more addition to the roster of people in this place that match her own reality.

Jon gives her one more dubious look before he nods, as if it should be obvious. "Yes. She's an essence of knowledge. She helped us to navigate into Dromos Reftai."

"Domos what?"

"Dromos Reftai," both Liara and Jon say.

"Forbidden land," Liara explains. "A place cursed by corruption?" Tali and Jana shake their heads. "A place where the people before us were cursed to exist by the Reapers?"

"Uh… Like the Omega four?" Jana asks Tali for help understanding and, unfortunately, the woman merely shrugs. _So much for trying to understand this place_ , she thinks as she sees a mirror of her own confusion on the other two's faces. "Big bug like things?"

"Oh," Jon draws the understanding word out before nodding and smiling in a 'now we are getting somewhere'. "The cursed Protheans, those who came before us. They were corrupted by the Reapers and their once supposed beautiful cities lie in ruins within Dromos Reftai."

"There are some traces left behind all over Trebia, but the highest concentration is lost to us." When Jana raises a questioning brow, she motions just further down the horizon than their direction. "Dromos Reftai is a name my people gave the blackened, dead land where the Protheans built their empire from, but we cannot venture there by Council law."

"Hence the name." Liara nods and Jana exhales heavily, trying to connect this place's events with her own. 'Damned' is certainly what she'd call what lies beyond the Omega four as it took away everything that mattered to her, her life, and damned her to an existence without purpose. "How did you make it there?"

"EDI." When she waves her hand to elaborate, Jon looks off into the cloudy distance and goes quiet for a time. A slight sadness fills his eyes before he exhales heavily and his eyes glance back. "She showed us how to navigate the treacherous waters that surround the island. It is only thanks to her that the Normandy wasn't shattered against the jagged cliffs."

"Yeah," Jana thinks of her own trip and of how it took all of her, leaving behind a husk to return. "Our own was only navigated thanks to our own EDI."

"I… lost someone there." Taking a deep breath, Jonathan lifts his chin and glares into the horizon. "It was that day that I vowed 'never again'."

Frowning in remembrance, Jana can't help the nod in understanding. _You are dealing with it better than I did. Than I still am_. Tali seems to read the pain on her face as she turns away. It is an empty gesture of empathy that Jana can't seem to find in herself a reason to care. She may have lost her connection with their universe, as far as they know, but she can learn to adapt. If asari, humans, and Protheans exist, then quarians should be here somewhere.

Jana, on the other hand, will never find another Garrus Vakarian.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note: Chapters 2 and 3 were slightly altered to relfect a later story change I had not previously anticipated when I wrote them. While not major changes, they do alter some details.

* * *

Jana isn't sure what she expected when she heard that this band of otherworldly versions of herself and the people she knew had their very own Normandy. They had said it 'fastest ship in the sea', but it hadn't really stuck. Not until she found herself now standing at the foot of a massive wooden dock and staring at a wooden boat painted all kinds of blue, navy, and cobalt.

"It's...blue?" She runs her palm over her face in attempt to wipe away whatever crazy hallucination she's having where the Normandy is really a giant old-time ship and not at all space worthy. Luck fails her as she drops her hand and opens her eyes to the same sight of Jon's men loading horses and supplies onto the massive boat.

Jon steps up to her side from somewhere off where he had been ordering his men to collect up the strange stone body and store it on the ship. "It's the newest technique in stealth. Not only is she the fastest, slowest ship, but the scholars believe that, from a distance, the blues can trick enemy eyes." He smiles and hesitantly lays a hand on Jana's shoulder, relaxing some into the gesture when she doesn't shrug him off. "I'd be honored if you'd travel with us. We could use your insight and I know you and Tali are cut to be soldiers, even if your strange weapons don't work." He chuckles when Jana huffs an exasperated sigh of agreement to that. "Don't worry, we'll train you if you choose to join us on the battlefield."

Jana makes a slight laugh, equal parts anxious and disbelieving. "I don't know if you can teach this old dog new tricks." She isn't quite sure she wants to learn, always. Not with her will to do anything all but gone since… since hell swallowed up her only salvation.

When Jon gives her an absolutely flabbergasted stare, she rubs her neck at the awkwardness of having to explain a human saying to a human. Aliens, she's used to, but it just feels silly having to do it with her own kind. It only creates more questions of just how much is going to need to be explained between them throughout this entire situation she and Tali find themselves in.

"It means…. Once someone is set in their ways, it's not always easy to change."

"Oh," Jon says, soon smiling. "Don't worry. We're here. If you decide to stick with the Normandy, after all. If you truly want, we can leave you with the scholars in Citadel City-"

The thought of what happened to her own Citadel floods her senses. "No!" He starts, a confused look on his face, and she clears her throat, shaking her head. "I mean, no. No, we can't stay on the Citadel - _at_ the Citadel. Citadel City… Whatever."

Jon frowns and looks to where Tali stands, curiously watching his men load the ship with seemingly everything they needed from their short term camp. To Jana, it makes sense for her to be so involved in the act as she's sure Tali has never quite seen something so similar to her own people's nomadic ways, even if in a different setting and form. Where her people lived with whatever they could create or store on their packed Flotilla, these people survived off of cramming whatever they could use on a single ship, making due and fighting battles with in a way that technology made so much easier.

"Does something happen to the Citadel?" Jon asks, dark eyes scanning Jana's face. Concern, both for his own and her Citadel, is clear on his questioning face, but all she can offer is a shake of her head. What would telling him do? She doesn't even have any idea if it was because of her own mistakes that Cerberus took the Citadel or even if events would lead to the same thing happening here.

"I can't… I don't know if it'd even help you. Everything is already so different." She motions the ship, but means so much more. Reaper 'corruption'? Stone creatures where an android would have been? EDI being an 'essence of knowledge' instead of an AI? Just how much was different here than from her own reality - if she and Tali are really here and this isn't all some hallucination in her dying breaths.

He takes a heavy breath and looks out towards the ocean beyond his Normandy. "If you so choose, you can stay with us. Perhaps you can aid EDI in predicting the Corruption's movements."

"I have to know." When she speaks, he looks to her with a raised brow in curiosity and encouragement to continue. "What is the Corruption, exactly?"

He hums and rubs the stubble on his jaw. "The entire Reaper kind are not yet in our realm. There are very few trying to reopen the doorways to their own plane so that they can fill the sky, devouring every mortal in sight and destroying our world. The Corruption is their way of taking control of our loved ones and turning them against us." He frowns, going silent as his eyes go distance in their gaze over the water. After a silence that weighs heavily in the air, he clears his throat and shifts in a way that his armor creaks. "The longer someone is corruption or the stronger the hold, the more twisted they become. They fight without reaction to pain or fear. A plague on the land that marks the arrival of the Reapers."

"A lot of that sounds the same." She sighs when he looks at her in surprise and closes her eyes, ducking her head and laying a hand on her armor where her ring lies beneath and against her chest.

Jon looks at her with an understanding in his eyes and nods solemnly. Instead of digging up their own accounts of a seemingly shared pain, he crosses his arms and rolls his neck. "Looks like we're just about boarded up." Following his eyes, Jana sees the last of the horses herded into the Normandy's lower deck. "We should get you and Tali aboard, show you around while we're not in the middle of some sort of danger or another."

Jana nods and slowly follows him, seeing how Tali watches from her place at the end of the docks, hands clasped and apparently feeling out of place. Jana has no idea what the girl must feel like finding herself in a world where their technology doesn't seem to work and where everything - if Jana's honest - looks like it's covered in bacteria and anything else under the sun that will get the quarian seriously sick. No matter all the mess they were in back home, Tali doesn't deserve to be thrown into the unknown, not with a commander that only ran on fumes and promises - of which every one was unfulfilled - to save the galaxy as she waited for death.

"Jon?" she says and slows to just outside of a now confused Tali's hearing range. "Can I ask you something?" When he stops and turns to her, an answering smile on his face when he nods, she glances back to Tali for a moment. He falters in his smile, but she doesn't know the reason and, instead, asks what's been on her mind since their - useless - gun filled greeting. "How did you recognize Tali?"

His brows knit as he frowns deeply, pain lacing through his voice as he speaks. "She reminded me of someone I once knew."

 _Could that mean…?_

Her eyes widen in shock as her mouth opens. He might not say it, but there's only one way to be able to know Tali by her voice: To know Tali herself. Especially when the quarian wears a nearly opaque mask and full body envirosuit . Jana is sure that such tech isn't around here in this world, but, if he recognized her by name, then that means there are quarians or something like them. If there are quarians - and asari, apparently - then there's a chance for so many of the other species.

And if there are other species, and a Tali existed here for Jon to be able to remember and recognize her voice even with Jana's own Tali wearing her mask, then that means there's a chance she could find a Garrus. Even if he's not the same as her husband, she will still be able to feel like she is close to a part of him. There has to be a similarity in personalities if those she's seen already seem so close to the originals - well, _her_ originals.

She covers her chest again and looks at him with hope, and plea for her hope to not be unfounded. "You… you knew a Tali? _Your_ Tali?"

He closes his eyes and ducks his head. "It's… not something I'd like to talk about. I'm sorry."

' _I lost her.' He lost his Tali… and he cared deeply for her. Perhaps…_

"Don't be sorry," she whispers and lays a hand on his arm, drawing his glistening, pain filled eyes to her. "I… I know…" Unable to say it, she lays her hand on her chest in hopes that he understands. Where she means her rings, it's not lost on her that the gesture also touches her armored heart. "It's not easy to talk about."

Jon tilts his head slightly before moving his hand to cover hers and gives it a light squeeze to express an understanding of their shared solidarity in their heartbreak. What happened to their loved ones need not be said for the two to know the hurt - the agony - that comes from the loss.

The moment falls from between them as he pats her hand once before continuing forward. Tali looks to them in question, but Jon merely waves a hand towards the Normandy, a warm smile back on his face. "Right this way, madams." He chuckles with Jana rolls her eyes and Tali ducks her head in a blush. "I'm honored to welcome you aboard the Normandy, fastest ship on the seas and stealthiest of the oceans."

The wooden gangplank creaks under their boots and Jana looks down to see places where the planks have splintered, revealing the crystal blue waters beneath. It's almost deceiving how relaxed the sea when she thinks about the unnatural storms they ran from back at the obelisk. If that is the Corruption Jon was talking about, then how long would it take before it spread to this point and soon covered this world?

From the sounds of everything, this was it, where every species lived. There was no 'galaxy' to lead the Reapers on a chase through, no planets to sacrifice in order to save others. If the Reapers took whatever this world was called, then Jana would have watched another failed attempt to fight the oncoming tide. If she can, she needs to help Jon do what she couldn't, even if it kills her in the process. She has to die knowing she made her husband proud, she now believes that.

"This is the cargo deck," Jon begins as they step down into a massive chamber that runs a large length of the ship. Here, there are horses, rowboats, armor, tools, and other various items that are needed to maintain the ship and keep the ground crew prepared for anything they may face. It's here that so many of the crew bustle about trying to secure what they've brought on from the shore in preparation for taking to the sea. "Jameson works here maintaining the weapons and armors, fixing damage, resharpening the blades. He will be the one to uh…" Jon looks Jana and Tali over. "I'd say tend to your armor, but I'm not sure what kind of metal that is."

"It's not metal. It's a high grade polymer blend," Jana answers, stopping mid sentence when Jon raises his brows in shock. "It's probably not too useful against the type of weapons you're using."

"And I can't remove my suit." Tali chuckles nervously, fidgeting. "I'd get a horrible infection just thinking about taking it off." Jana gives her a sad smile in the realization that Tali being here is going to get more dangerous the longer she goes without being able to sanitize food after depleting her stores on hand.

"I see." Jon looks over the cargo hold. "Perhaps the quarians in my realm can help." At his words, Tali's eyes widen, stunned and demanding to hear more, and he smiles at her, dipping his chin. "They are a traveling people, often seen wearing long shawls that cover their heads and most of their faces. The air is usually too full of dust, smoke, or other things that they're too sensitive to breathe."

Tali's eyes and slumped shoulders show her sadness as it physically feels like her hope drops from the air between the three of them. "I can't… The quarians here must not have been in clean ships for hundreds of years, or something like it. My people were so long from own home that we no longer have strong enough immune systems to live outside our suits."

Jon hums and sets his hand on her shoulder. "Perhaps there's a chance? Maybe you should speak with their magicians and see if they can help you." When she looks to him, eyes drawn narrow in confusion, he smiles. "And I'll ask the scholars in Citadel City. I even have some friends who know a thing or two."

Jana is sure Tali is still not entirely convinced, but what choice does she really have? Either she can believe in the hope of something supernatural happening, or she can lose herself in the very possible reality of her dwindling time. If Jana lets Tali fall into the same pit of expecting death at every turn that she suffers, then what kind of friend is she?

"We'll gladly take any help you can offer," Jana says for Tali, smiling reassuringly when the quarian girl looks to her with a blink of surprise. "It wouldn't hurt to look, right?" She shrugs and, when Tali gives her a slight nod of an okay, she turns to Jon. "Can you show us the rest of your ship? I'd like to know where we could be of any help aboard this Normandy."


	5. Chapter 5

"Of course," Jon agrees, stepping aside when a dark skinned woman that looks so close to one of the pair of security guards on Jana's own Normandy passes by with a horse in order to secure it with the others on beams running the length of the hold. Campbell, Jana thinks she was named, or something similar. Once pass, Jon tilts his head towards the back of the chamber where a partial wall blocks access to the small back area. "There's our brig. It's not often we need to use it, but you never know who or what we make come in contact with."

Starting to walk, he starts to point out people working on the ship, from huge ropes, to heavy chains. Barrels of something are rolled towards a small alcove on the deck where stores must be held by people Jana doesn't recognize from her own Normandy, but she assumes that this sort of ship would need so many more considering they don't have a giant AI aboard.

"Betony and Sela tend to our horses both inland and at sea, feeding, cleaning, saddling them up." He shrugs and stops at the foot of a stair that leads to a small, half level below where it looks like more supplies are stored, and another level above. "You already know Jameson and his duties, Stephen and his place leading us ashore, and know we'll head up to the deck my crew seems to love above all," he says with a chuckle.

Climbing up the stairs, one by one, they climb up to the next level. This one is more divided by walls for privacy on a clearly obvious crew deck. Or whatever counts as one on this kind of ship.

"Aft is our infirmary and galley." He points towards the back of the boat. Or, what Jana thinks is the back unless they've been turned around. Jerking his chin towards their right as they walk through a small hall, he says, "The actual beds are along this inner room."

Starting to walk, Jana notices that this hall is shorter than the length of the cargo deck. Most likely, they are getting close to the top deck of this small - at least in comparison to vids she's seen - ship.

Each door they pass leads into the same large room full of bunks, a few chests, and various bags or other forms of keeping personal effects safe. She sees some crew within, mostly those from the ground crew, bustling about before rushing out one of the other doors, but Jon stops and smiles when they see yet another familiar face.

"And here's my quartermaster!" Jon walks to a man that looks like Adams and lays a hand on the clearly busy man's back. "Gregorius, this is Jana and Tali." When Adams looks to his commander in question, Jon nods once, a soft sadness in his eyes, but explains. "I can't keep you long from your duties, but they are from another realm. With hope, they may be able to help us."

Gregorius smiles at Jana and Tali before nodding in understanding. "Aye, aye, Captain. I'll make sure the crew knows." Stepping forward, he lays a hand roughly on Jana's shoulder, patting her. "It's a pleasure to meet you." Jana merely forces a smile and dips her chin as he does the same to Tali. "And you, as well."

"It's nice to meet you," Tali says softly, head dipping as her hands wring just enough to catch Jana's attention. Had she not known the girl enough, then she wouldn't have caught it. Apparently, Jon's own Tali didn't seem to have the same quirk as he doesn't catch the discomfort of her movements.

Jana hopes the tension in Tali's shoulders is merely from the situation and awkwardness of seeing people they know as someone else. If it's something more, something that can't be fixed with time, Jana isn't sure she find a way to make this literal out of world fiasco easier for her closest friend. Her failure to solve the problems she knows have to be running in Tali's head could mean the young quarian's death, as will be the case if they can't find a way to purify food once her supplies run out.

Apparently her own discomfort is obvious as she looks from her friend in her peripheral to Jon, only to see his concerned frown.

"Is everything alright? Do you need to stop, get your sea legs?"

"Huh?" Jana looks to him with a raised brow, completely thrown by that, as that question runs through her mind in attempt to make better sense. "Oh. Right. No." She offers a feigned smile. "I'm alright. Just trying to get used to seeing wood and water instead of metal and space."

"Metal and space? Like the stars? How do you do that?" At his question, Tali speaks, the conversation now falling into her area of expertise.

"We manage to use… energy," she starts, trying to simplify things for a man that doesn't even have a grasp on anything close to element zero fueled propulsion. "To push our ships through the air, and into the stars."

"Made of metal?"

"Yes." She nods happily and walks beside him, Jana trailing behind. "Keelah, if I can get my Omni-Tool to work, I'd show you all sorts of things we can do."

"I can't even imagine that," he says, soon chuckling as he shakes his head. "You aren't talking about grand visions, are you? Because I've heard some priests and wizards speak some strange thinks."

"As strange as Reapers breaking through to your world?"

He laughs at Tali's remark and nods. "You've got me there. Very good." Stopping at a door, he turns and rubs his stubbled chin. "Now that you say it like that, I guess it's possible in your realm." He smiles and moves to open the door. "I'd like to see that ommy tool you're talking about one day."

For the first time in a long time, Tali's shoulders lift and her eyes narrow into joyful crescents behind her mask. Ever since Jana lost her own joy, Tali seemed to have been there to carry the burden of keeping her commander together, but even the usual jovial and easy going girl has lost her sense of hope in the universe. Jana knew she should've tried harder to maintain a facade, but Tali just knew too much and she couldn't force herself to pretend to the extent that even her friend would be fooled. It just took too much out of Jana and her already almost nonexistent sense of duty and will.

Seeing Tali now? In the company of someone so eager to just listen even if he probably had no clue if what she was describing actually existed somewhere, she was starting to show the girl Jana met so long ago. Before the Omega-4 disaster, before Jana had to save Tali from exile at her trial, before losing her squads on both Freedom's Progress and Haestrom. Even before Alchera, where Jana's death broke them all apart to drift endlessly in lives expecting Reapers, but unable to fight without the one stupid enough to try leading them.

When Jana comes back down to the conversation, Tali is laughing softly as Jon smiles. Seeing her over his shoulder, he motions Jana to come forward with a head tilt. "I think it's time to introduce you to the top deck and her crew."

He opens the door of the crew area and sun bursts into the darkened hallway lit sparsely with lanterns. Jana has to blink away the glare until her eyes adjust, but soon the sight of a bustling, sun soaked deck appears. Across the way and towards the front of the deck is a smaller room, the woman that looks like Traynor leading a pair of men carrying a small cage of black birds inside.

"That's Samatha, but we call her Sam. She works with Gregorius, sending out and bringing in ravens, our means of communication." Jon steps out and turns to face them as he steps back, arms outspread as he looks up. Following him out and around, Jana sees another level above finally topped with what looks like a giant wheel. "This, is the heart of the Normandy. Atop my quarters is where Geffrey has the helm." _Joker_. "He's a trickster, a jokester, at least on this ship."

"Joker?" Tali says, seeming to perk up in another bout of happiness.

Jon smiles and shrugs. "Sure, that's something some of the crew call him." Chuckling, he motions to follow as he leads up towards the helm.

They pass a giant cog in the center of the ship that Jana has no idea what it's for. Standing there, Daniels and Donnelly talk enthusiastically. Enthusiastic in that Daniels seems to be shaking her head in attempt to ignore whatever Donnelly is so adamant about being heard.

"And this is Master Carpenter Kendrick and Master Rigger Gabrielia," Jon introduces as they pass towards the highest level's ascending stairs. "We often keep out of their way when they're like this."

"No. I _told_ you, I need those repairs done now!" Gabrielia finally speaks, scowling at Kendrick as they pass. "Not tomorrow, not when we get to Citadel City… now!"

"Calm down, woman." That only makes her angrier, but Jon has already led them far from earshot of the duo.

Jon leads them up to the top most level - except for the sails, of course - Jana almost laughs at how strange it is to see Joker like this, up and about. He still has a bit of a limp for some reason, but he obviously doesn't suffer from the same disease as his counterpart in Jana's 'realm'. He still wears a ridiculous hat, though, except more a flatter, larger hat with a short side bill. Some things never change, apparently.

"There's our captain. I was starting to wonder if we lost you down with the horses," Joker - Geffrey - says with a grin, leaning on the giant wheel of the ship. "And who are your guests? Don't tell me we've picked up… What are you wearing?"

"Armor." "An envirosuit." Jana and Tali say in tandem, making Joker lift his brows in confusion tinged curiosity, but Jon merely laughs.

"Don't worry yourself, Geffrey. We'll suit them up well enough." Turning to them, he motions first Jana. "This is Jana, and this…" His eyes seem to plea to her to say her own name, something still so hard to do and still so obvious as to his and his own world's Tali.

"Tali. Tali'Zorah vas Normandy."

"Normandy, eh?" Joker smirks and raises a dubious brow to his captain, expecting an answer he soon gets.

"They are not from our world-"

Suddenly, a basin of water, smaller than the wheel, but not by enough, lights up and begins to flow upward and down like a fountain. Jana stares at it in shock as Tali gasps, but even more surprising is the familiar voice that comes from the flowing liquid as it changes color with every syllable.

"Jana and Tali'Zorah vas Normandy are from one of the many realms existing in parallel with our own world."

"Hello, EDI," Jon greets with a smile.

"Hello, Jonathan. Hello, Jana and Tali'Zorah vas Normandy."

"Please, it's just Tali."

"Very well, Tali," EDI says with a flicker of light blue through the ripples of fluid.

"EDI, we've found something of interest. It may be a golem, but not a geth." Jon lets that sink in and Jana starts to link her own definition of the created rock creatures with geth and what was once an android in her own universe. "Please work with Liara when she's ready."

"Very well."

"Thank you." Smiling to the liquid, he then turns to Geffrey. "Gregorius is charting our course, I'll be here when we raise anchor and set sail."

"Aye. She'll be ready."

Jon nods and turns to Jana and Tali, crossing his arms and lifting his chin towards the land they're still docked to. "You can still stay on the island of Maraton and try to find your way home. I can't say as we'll ever return here during the war. If you decide to go with us, you'll have more chances to leave and stay ashore wherever you please, maybe fight whatever battle comes your way. Or, you can stay with us, join us, and, if you can, tell us everything that may help in our fight."

Tali looks to Jana, and she can feel a look of _need_ to stay. Whatever budding friendship she has building with Jon isn't what drives her to beg in silence with a single look. Tali has always been about the betterment of her people and, with now it being just the two of them, how would Tali stand by and let Jana take an offer to walk away when it means their deaths?

After the horrors of their own war, they know there is nowhere safe. At least on the Normandy, they could try to put up a fight or run for their lives. Ashore, especially here, there was no escape and only so long they would be able to fight if the Reaper forces here attacked in numbers anywhere close to those in their own time.

Coming to her decision - because it's better to die trying that laying down - Jana nods and holds out a hand. "We're with you 'til the end."


	6. Chapter 6

Traveling through the expanse of space, Jana knew, always took time. Even with the Relays and FTL, the fastest ships would still need days, if not weeks, to cross the traverse of the stars. The time spent in between missions gave the crew time to bound, catch up on their skills, fix any damage to their armors, upgrade their equipment, or just plain have a break between flying bullets.

Her years in the sky hadn't prepared her for traveling the seas on this new Normandy, however.

Despite everyone's proud assurances that the ship was the fastest in the seas, Jana felt like the trip along the coast has already taken centuries. While Tali busied herself trying to figure out what happened to their weapons and tech, attempting to repair whatever damage crossing over may have caused, Jana had nothing to do. Without the knowledge of anything pertaining to this world, she sucked up her pride and went to Jon.

Normally, she'd know that a commander needs their time to lead, to prepare for the next fight, but this wasn't the universe as she knew it. She certainly found him conversing with his men, planning their next move or using the incoming letters flown from birds - Traynor's birds often flying back towards the shore in return - on a massive map of what hand to be the land of all the species, but he wasn't always occupied with his duties.

Oftentimes, she had found him trying to observe Tali's failing efforts at repair, asking a plethora of questions about the tech and their own universe. A sort of comfortable friendship developed between the two in these talks and, though Jana felt a kind of unsubstantial hurt at 'losing her friend', she enjoyed seeing her younger friend finding some sort of standing in this lunacy. She felt a sort of guilt over any kind of envy, though, because Jon came to her on many occasions to, as she could clearly see, cheer her up or make her feel welcome despite circumstances.

Wanting to repay the man and his crew for carting her around, she went to James - Jameson - and asked for his help. She remembered the man well from her own realm and came to share a fondness for someone so different in his ability to adapt to the war, even when Jana herself failed miserably.

"Can you help train me? My weapons are broken from God knows what and I need to know how to fight." She had said when she come to him, finding him cleaning a shield until the reflection of the crew cabin could be seen on its surface.

Jameson, despite their lack of any comradery, had smiled wide in a very typical Vega-esque way and nodded. Jumping to his feet, he ushered Jana down to the hold to retrieve dulled swords. "For practice," he assured, but all Jana thought was 'for someone too clumsy so they don't chop something off'. "And since you don't seem like the hammer type," he added with a smirk.

It didn't take much fumbling with the massive two handed sword before even Jana could see she wasn't fit for the weapon. However, where she thought all hope lost, Jameson merely shrugged, took the weapon, and waved over a passing crew hand. "Get her a shield and sword."

Shield in hand and a much shorter sword in the other, Jameson threw her for a loop when, instead of starting to train, lead her up to the top deck. Out in the sun, Jana blushed visibly at the idea of being seen by anyone under the bright sun instead of dim torch. She knew she was a horrid fighter - at least on this kind of battlefield - but not being able to hide in shadows made her embarrassment even thicker. It showed in her practice too.

Although, perhaps it wasn't completely the fault of the trainee, but also the trainer.

In their practice battles, it became obvious that Jameson's specialty lie in the large hammer Jana had seen him sporting back on land. With both using one hand on a shield and the other on a weapon, they clashed without coordination or confidence. Sure, Jameson still had more experience in the task, but his struggles - as best Jana could compare - felt the same as if she suddenly picked up a biotic amp and tried to blow someone across the room.

One morning, with the sun barely peeking over the horizon, their practice drew the attention of the Normandy's commander himself.

Stumbling back from a bash of shield against shield, Jana nearly crashes into him. Her armor still pulls a grunt from him, the man not one to walk around his ship constantly armored up in that heavy metal. As Jana turns, mouth opening to apologize, he chuckles and crosses his arms, smirking with a raised brow.

"Wanna learn from the master?" He asks with a hand motioning his grinning expression.

Jameson snorts and stands up, his brow glistening from their exertions. "Trying to one up me? What do you know of training?"

"I could ask the same thing."

Chuckling, he steps up beside Jana and smirks proudly. "Taught each and every one of the younguns in my town how to fight. I can just as easily teach Jana, here."

Jon looks over both of them, taking in their exhausted appearances as his expression turns more serious. He still wears his jovial nature - something she's grown used to seeing with him - but it's clear he means business when he holds out a hand to Jameson. Without question, he hands it over and Jon moves to weigh it in his hand. "Not bad. A bit too light for your tastes, eh?"

The bear of a man grunts and crosses his arms indignantly, but Jana can see the slight hint of amusement on his lips. "Laugh it up, but we'll see how much you're laughin' when I'm covering your arse in battle."

Jon laughs and it becomes contagious, spreading through the trio as he pats the other man roughly on the shoulder. "Alright, alright. You got me." Turning to Jana, he smiles and motions her weapon and shield. "How about I teach you?"

"I wouldn't want to pull you from your duties-"

"Nonsense," he says, waving her protest off. "You want to fight? Then I won't have you uncomfortable with whatever weapons you're using." Smiling, he gestures for Jameson to hand him his shield. "So we find you're not one for a dual-handed weapon." He shrugs and shifts the shield over his hand and forearm. "And we'll keep looking for something until you're ready to fight alongside us."

As he begins to train her how to hold the weapon in a position that feels more natural, Jameson grunts in interest and leans against the railing of the deck. Crossing his arms, he gives Jana a smile and nod in encouragement when their eyes meet in a passing glance.

"Alright, shield is secured to your forearm like so." Jon tilts his arm for her to see his own shield's position. "Be used to taking brunts of hits with this arm. It'll hurt at first, leave your arm sore enough that it feels it'll fall off." When Jana nods in understanding, he shifts his sword to free his hand to test her hold on the shield. "It's a bit too stiff here. You don't want to lock your elbow or you'll break something."

"Got it. Give into the hits," she says and he grins, nodding and shifting his weapon back to his hand.

"Alright, ready to test your grip?"

"I don't-" Before she can figure out just what he means, he bashes his shield into hers, knocking her back hard enough to make her nearly fall on her ass. Still, her boots scuff against the wooden deck and pain shoots up her arm to radiate in her shoulder. "Shit…"

"You good?" Jameson has stood from his place on the railing and looks at her in concern. "Damn, Jon-"

"I'm good." Jana shakes out her arm and breaths out a steadying breath to control her pain. With hope, what she's learned from her practice with Jameson won't leave her completely back at square one. "Keep going."

Jon nods and rolls his wrist of the hand holding the sword. "I'm going to use my sword. Try to watch and anticipate where I'm going to come from and block it with your shield. Don't worry about attacking back."

Clenching her jaw, Jana squares her shoulders and bends her knees at the ready. Dropping her sword to the deck, she rolls her neck and finally gives the nod. When Jon moves in, she knows he's holding back and giving his blows enough of a wind up for her to know where it's coming from. Still, he's fast and hits hard, sending her slowly back towards the wall of the cabin at the nose of the ship. Her arm is screaming in pain and she's sure it'll leave an ache sure to immobilize her arm, but she doesn't relent, doesn't call him off. Whether because of stubbornness to show weakness or determination to learn while their aren't yet neck deep in Reapers, she doesn't know.

Once it seems like she's got the hang of blocking his blows and taking the brunt of his strikes, he begins to mix up his tactics. This time, when he comes in for a slash of his sword, he doesn't hold back, using the force he would on a normal enemy's shield. He still advertises his next move like nobody's business, but Jana wouldn't be able to take him at his best. She knows that, he knows that, and everyone else on this ship probably knows it.

Coming out of nowhere, Jon steps to the side and slams his shield against her own. She can feel the impact all the way from her toes to her rattling teeth and she can't hold her ground, dropping to a knee. If she were really his enemy, he'd have the perfect shot at taking her down, but, instead of hitting her while she's down or gloating his better skill over her, he curses and drops his sword.

"Shit, I'm so sorry, Jana." He clamors to help her back up to her proper footing without actually making her feel like a fallen damsel. Instead of grabbing her elbow with the tenderness of a maiden, he offers a hand, grips her forearm, and hefts her to her back up.

Her self-ridicule loses all fire when she looks up into his eyes to see a sort of stern pride. She wants to be trained, wants to be useful in this world, and she's at the bottom of the totem in terms of fighting knowledge with these kinds of weapons, but the defeat feels less like failure and more a learning experience.

She's lost too much over the years that, if not for the warmth in Jon's eyes, she'd have considered even this her fault, something else only she could screw up.

"Ready to move on?" he asks without mention of the incident, releasing her to rolling her aching shoulder. "We can switch to you attacking, test your sword skills."

"What 'sword skills'?" She tries for levity, but her body is just too exhausted to accomplish it.

He hums and looks her over. "Tell you what, maybe we'll give you a moment, let our healer Cholen tend to your injuries?" When Jana gives him a glare, silently demanding he get his sword in hand and keep moving, he shakes his head like a scolding parent. "No. You've been at it for hours already with Jameson. We're stopping for now. We can begin again at sunrise." He says the last with a reassuring smile. "I'll be taking you on as my apprentice." Sighing, Jana gives in and nods. "Gotta admit, either Jameson knows what he's doing or you're cut out for this." He smirks and leans closer to her, whispering, "And he can handle a shield about as well as a krogan on horse."

Jameson makes a gasp of feigned hurt from where he's picking up weapons, but Jana has no clue what that actually means. Sure, she's seen krogan and she's - now - seen horses. The two don't make a very nice picture considering the horses she's seen so far, but she has no clue if they come in larger sizes.

"Is that a good or a bad thing?"

"He thinks I'm shite with a shield." Jameson hands Jana her sword before cocking a brow at Jon. "And my hammer is better to block with anyways. Block, then take them down in one fell swoop. No fancy footwork needed."

"Yeah," Jana says with a huff of half exhaustion and half amusement. "But I don't really have the time to get as buff as you." When the man looks to her in confusion at the word usage, Jana motions his arms.

No one could deny Jameson's a good looking man - even sweaty and fully armored - but even Jana's universe's counterpart wasn't nearly as well built as the man standing before her, and that's saying a lot to his regiment here. He'd have to be to as big just to wield that massive weapon he calls a hammer, but like hell if Jana can strengthen herself up in short time even close to that level. Hell, she isn't even as build as Jon, but hopefully managing his own fighting style will be easier than Jameson's or - and it'd be embarrassing to see the comparison - the injured Ashlin's sword.

Seeing that perhaps she said her thoughts wrong, Jana clears her throat and chuckles nervously. "I mean, you put a lot of work into being able to wield that weapon of yours and you should be proud. It's damn impressive." She motions herself as best she can with full hands. "I'm no weakling, I can carry three weapons on my back and full sprint, but there's no way I'll build up the muscle to match you."

As meaning hits, Jameson grins, then laughs. Cupping Jana's armored shoulder, he jostles her. "Damn right I'm impressive. Hear that, Jon?" He smirks at the eye roll before looking back to Jana. "What do you say we get these armors off and get something from the mess?"

"God, sounds like heaven." She glances Jon's way and smiles, giving a nod of thanks. For once, getting her ass kicked has left her feeling better than when she started. For just a few moments, she can feel like a whole person again, like she's worth something even if it'll take many more hours of training. "You coming?"

"Can't." He smiles and starts to unstrap his shield. "I promised Tali I'd help her learn how to use a bow." Shrugging, he sets his weapon and shield down against a crate secured to the deck with a massive net. "We talked about her suit thing and I think keeping her out of the brunt of battle will help."

"Since when do you know any archery?" Jameson stops, foot on the next lower step of the descending stairs. "That was usually someone else's job."

"Not today." He chuckles and leans on the railing of the ship, overlooking the rolling sea. "Besides, if you tried to teach sword and shield, how bad will teaching archery be?" The other man snorts and Jana chuckles at the two before Jon looks over his shoulder with a smile. "Don't worry, Jana. I'll take care of her. I used to practice on straw dummies back home whenever my mother would take my sword away. I may not be skilled, but I know basics."

Figuring she knows at least enough about shooting, she snorts and rolls her eyes. "Right, like don't point the arrow at yourself?" He laughs and she smiles at his warm nature before adding, "Just take care of her. She's no child, sure, but there's no fallback if she gets sick."

Something like an understanding flits over his face and he gives a curt nod. With how much time he has spent with Tali, Jana isn't all that surprised if he knows about the reason behind her suit and - ultimately - desire to repair their tech. If her friend is alright with telling him, then Jana won't hold back on the full importance in her warnings, trusting that these people will take care of her friend as if she's one of their own. If not, then no amount of inaptitude of skill will keep Jana from ensuring her only friend is safe.

She can't fail another loved one.


	7. Chapter 7

Author's note: I made a huge consistency error in the last chapter. I have fixed the mistake, but those moving ahead may be confused. To save anyone from having to reread it, I will explain. Because Ashlin was injured so badly on Maraton that they need to get her to Citadel City, it would be impossible for her to be on her feet already. Because of that, I altered her scenes to include Jameson instead. Everything else in the chapter has remained the same. Thank you and sorry for the major boo boo.

* * *

In between loud clangs of the metal of Jana's practice sword against the metal of Jon's shield, Jana hears the nearly inaudible quarian curse in her ear. Surprised to hear a swear she's both never heard from Tali and that also doesn't translate, Jana stops her tiring wailing on Jon's shield to stare at her friend struggling with a holding a longbow while trying to line up an arrow against the string - ' _nock', Jon called it._

Smiling, Jon stops the training exercise and walks towards where Tali is trying to shoot a dummy positioned on the short railing circling the deck. Good idea, Jana had told Jon, because god only knows what would happen if one of Tali's arrows hit someone actually worthwhile on this massive boat. At least here, the stray shots - of which there are many, not that Jana blames her friend or could do much better - can just go into the water to float away with the waves.

 _At this rate, we'll have left a trail of rouge arrows for the Reapers to just follow right to us._

She cuts that thought off before it gets too far and uses the moment of distraction to roll out her shoulder, not sure if she even knows what it's like not to have a constant ache radiating through her limbs anymore. She's gotten somewhat used to blocked with a shield, of handling it well enough to hopefully save her life, but she was horrible with her weapon and like hell was she going to settle for less than perfect and capable. Right now, the fighter of the Normandy has been cut down by one thanks to that rock monster that bashed in Ash's - Ashlin's - skull in like she was nothing. Even with seeing it before, the thought of that thing hurting one of her own - even if Ash wasn't technically _her_ Ashley Williams - makes her blood boil.

 _One more failure to the list. I could have warned them, should have seen the similarities enough to stop it from happening again._

She holds out hope that Ashlin can get back on her feet. It'll take a lot of work and medical aid - whatever that may be in this world - but Ashlin better pull through. Jana doesn't know what she'll do if not because she sure as hell knows she can't replace the woman on Jon's team. Not with how useless she's shown herself to be with her training.

"Try not to be too tense," Jon says to Tali as Jana joins them at the makeshift shooting range on the less used area of the top deck, rubbing the thick muscle at the junction of her shoulder and neck. "Hold the arrow between your two fingers, right between these two knuckles. Try laying the body of the arrow against this small ridge here." Jana doesn't quite see what Jon's doing as he takes Tali's hands, but she does catch the slight hitch in her friend's shoulders that hint at a ridiculous attempt to hide her awkward shyness.

 _These two are slowly budding into something. Don't think I don't see it, Tali._

Jana smiles at the thought that possibly Tali has found some sort of comfortable ground in the craziness of being in some fantasy of knights, magic, and dangerous rock creatures. Perhaps, if they end up being stuck here, adjustment won't be as difficult for her. Now, if only Jana could find some kind of grasp on something worth fighting for in this place because she sure as hell knows her own universe doesn't. This could be a chance at a new beginning if she just finds something to hold onto.

Leaning on a barrel secured to the deck, Jana sets her sword point between her feet and holds it between her legs to free the dead weight attached to her shoulder she calls an arm. She smiles when Jon says something, either unaware of her embarrassment at his proximity or choosing to ignore it, and Tali nods.

When he steps back to give Tali room to try again to shoot an arrow at the dummy, he looks to Jana and gives her a reassuring smile. Aware of the man's confidence in his training and Tali's skills, the young quarian nocks another arrow, takes a deep breath, and pauses.

Seconds turn into a minute and the passing of minutes causes the air to thicken with anticipation. After what feels like an eternity, time standing still around them, Tali pulls back the stiff string and squares her shoulders. Using the training of firing a weapon, she takes in a long breath, holds, and releases her hold on the arrow.

The string of the bow makes a soft thwack as the taut string returns to its resting position after sending the arrow through the air. Jana tries to follow the projectile, but it's a blur as it flies across the short distance on the deck and comes to an instant stop as it lodges itself in the dummy's shoulder with a thunk.

Shock fills Tali as she lowers her hands slowly, stunned and speechless. Jana grins in pride and stands straight, clapping her hand on Jon's shoulder before giving Tali a sharp whistle in cheer. That snaps her friend out of it and Jana knows by the way Tali shifts slightly on her toes and her eyes narrow into little crescents that the quarian is just as happy, her excited surprise radiating off her like a visible glow.

"Damn, that was impressive," Jana says as she leaves her practice sword to lean against the barrel and comes over to her friend, giving her a strong hug.

Tali laughs lightly and returns the hug as best she can with one arm before stepping back and looking at the bow in disbelief. "I can't believe I did it. I did it, Shepard." Jon approaches as her hidden smile narrows her eyes even more as she jumps closer to him and hugs him too. "Thank you, Jon! Thank you!"

His smile is warm as he humbling shakes his head, patting her shoulders with his large hands. "You did it all yourself. I just showed you how to do it, but you made that shot." Looking over, he makes a whistle of impressed approval. "It won't take you long before you're hitting people between the eyes."

"I don't think-"

"Nonsense," he cuts off her quiet and shy protest with a chuckle, leaning down to pick out another arrow from the small quiver resting at their feet. "Let's try another? I bet you can get that dummy right in the heart."

Tali looks over his shoulder to Jana and Jana smiles, nodding in encouragement. "You're doing a helluva job. I tried," she says with an amused smirk, "and you saw how successful I was."

Jana's mishap with trying to use a bow had led to the idea to move training up to the top deck. Despite every attempt not to, Jana had somehow let the arrow float off the bow, point sideways, and, once released, lodge itself in a nearby crate of grain. While the horses loved the fresh feed all over the deck and the move nearly passed out from laughing, the very real danger existed, so Jon politely moved the training up and into a designated 'safe zone' on the top deck.

Jana still hasn't tried to shoot the bow since then, being much more comfortable with sword and shield. After all, it'd take more work to send a sword flying across the air than an arrow.

Leaving Tali to practice without eyes staring over her shoulder, Jon leads the way back to Jana and his training area. Jana picks up her practice sword from where she left it and follows quickly, shaking her arm to try and loosen it back up after she gave it a break for those few moments. Despite her evening curses at ever having the bright idea to do this training, at nearly working her arms until they feel like falling off, she truly feels like she's gaining a purpose in theses hours of hard work and unyielding practice fights with the Normandy's captain and commander.

Jon notices her slowed swing of the sword in the air in preparation for her smashing against his shield to commence and nods to himself. "We won't do too much more today. No use hurting yourself and losing even more days."

She wants to protest, but knows he's right, knows from PT in the Alliance that running herself to the bone and tearing a ligament does nobody any favors. She'd only become even more useless if she can't even lift or use her arms for who knows how long it'd take to heal from their supposed healer's attempts. From what she's heard and seen of Ash's condition, a healer is not the same as a doctor, can only tend wounds with herbs, flowers, and other mixes of plants and holistic treatments. Not that it's this world's version of Doctor Michel's - Cholen's - fault.

Jana sighs and drops her shoulders in logic winning out over her need to learn and gain any kind of usefulness. Pushing a few stray strands of hair that's fallen out of her half assed job at a braid - this apparently the best way to control loose hair without chopping it all off - from her sweaty forehead, she offers her hand in silent suggestion to take his shield. She's got to head down to the cargo deck anyways to give her weapon over to Jameson, so she figures she might as well save Jon the trip with his shield.

"Don't worry, Jana." Jon unstraps his shield and hands it over. "It takes time, but you sure as hell are learning fast." Chuckling, he crosses his arms and smiles. "It took me years, but I guess maybe your own training helps."

She snorts and chuckles herself. "I don't think swinging an omniblade counts." When he tilts his head in confusion, smile faltering, she explains. "It's like an electric blade."

"Well, it's still a blade," he says with a warmth to his voice as he looks over to Tali continuing her practice. "And a blade's a blade."

"Guess so." Shifting her grasp on the sword so she can look down at it in her hand and trying to imagine ever being able to use it with the skill of Jon, Jana shrugs. "And at least I can learn how to swing the damn thing and block with the shield. Don't need to do anything fancy."

"That's more like it." Jon drops his hands and lifts a brow as Gregorius walks down the deck from what Jana likes to consider the 'cockpit' where Joker tends to the helm alongside EDI's fountain. "Gregorius." Jon greets with a curt dip of his head. "How are we on approaching Cyona Fort?"

"Within the next hour, sir." Adam's alternate version points out towards the growing land on their eastern side. "We'll be able to come around and dock right at its gates."

During the past few days, the land mass that has been their apparent destination has grown on the horizon. There have been times where land was visible as just specks on the horizon before disappearing again, so Jana supposes said shore didn't have anywhere to dock. It would be the most logical reason for them to have traveled so far just to come to some fort.

Some fort that obviously isn't Citadel City that is, as she suspects, still more days away. Hopefully, she prays, it won't be by sea. Space faring or not, she still has seasickness from the swaying and tilting of the Normandy, but at least she's not emptying her stomach after every sparse meal she manages to force down like she was the first few days - and occasionally again with the occasional hard bucking of the ship.

"Perfect. Let the rest of the crew know. We need the horses and shore party ready. Have Samatha send a raven to Cyona and request a wagon." Expression stern, the 'Commander Shepard' face even existing across universe, Jon starts to walk down the deck giving orders to his quartermaster. "I need Liara to have that thing brought with us. The scholars at the Citadel may know how to transcribe it. EDI!" He shouts up the stairs as he climbs them onto the uppermost level, Jana following behind just in case Jon needs something from her.

"Yes, Jon?" The fountain EDI exists in flows with colors of blue, green, and aqua.

"I want you to help Liara, see if we can figure something out before we have to rely on the scholars." He sighs and looks to Jana as if she knows the exact meaning when he says, "They aren't liable to believe what they translate anyways."

Jana scowls and nods in assurance that the exact same thing happened in her own time. The Council, the world leaders, all of them refused to lend her their ears until it was too late. The only ones ever willing to listen was Cerberus, and those damn bastards turned their backs on her the moment she decided to destroy the Collector base.

That was probably the last good thing Jana ever did after… She stops that thought and feels the itch to reach for her ring under her tunic, but shakes it off.

 _No. I can't think of him. Not right now._

Instead, she clears her throat, drawing Jon's attention. "I don't mean to sound like an idiot, but how the hell are you going to take EDI with us? She looks sort of…" She looks over towards the fountain that looks made of some kind of marbled stone. "Heavy."

Joker shakes his head as if that problem's solution should be obvious, Jon chuckles with a warm smile towards Jana, and EDI's colors change to a green, orange, and purple. "I assure you that I have a more suitable form for the task."

"There's a looking glass that EDI is able to possess in order to maintain communication," Jon says, laying a hand on Jana's shoulder. "You should put on that strange armor of yours and get a real sword and shield." He smiles and motions Tali down below. "Let her know she can use that bow, but get Jameson to get her more arrows."

Jana chuckles nervously. "You sure you really trust us to watch your back?"

"If you're still not comfortable going into battle, then we can always move on to the next level of your training while we're in travel."

With nothing left in mind she can use to discourage his confidence in her, she finally nods and squares her shoulders. She _will_ prove his confidence worthwhile if it's the last thing she does because - dammit - she's tired of watching all hell be unleashed around her while she just stands still like she's slowly sinking in quicksand. If she can't, then she'll die knowing she didn't give up, that she can go to her mate with the knowledge that, though she gave up with her own people, she tried to helped this realm. Maybe he'd still be proud in her for picking herself back up, even if it was too late for their own universe she left behind.

Heading down to where Tali still practices, huffing in frustration whenever she misses and nearly squealing when she makes her target, Jana calls out so as not to surprise her. "Tali! We're almost to shore. We need to grab whatever we're taking with us." When her friend stops and looks to her with a tilt to her head in question, Jana nods in reassurance. "I want to do this. I want to try and give this place a chance, even if it means getting my ass kicked."

"Shepard, you don't have to prove anything." Stepping closer, Tali gently takes hold of Jana's arm, her eyes frowning. "Going into this with the expectation of getting hurt will only lead to it." Her voice cracks. "And I don't want to lose you."

Jana's brows draw down as her lips quirk downward. "Tali. I…" Yet, she knows the truth in Tali's observations, knows there's a reason Tali is her closest and most treasured friend. "I can't keep myself from thinking it, but I will try to think of the good side. And, if I die, I'll die fighting because I want to live and not because I'm secretly looking for it."

Tali stares at her for a long, tense moment before saying, "I know you don't mean that, but you have me here to make sure you don't die. And you better not try it, you bosh'tet. I still have a shotgun."

Jana chuckles, relaxing. "It doesn't work."

"Eh," Tali response with a shrug and obvious grin. "I can still bash you with it."

Looking up and over at the sound of distant thunder towards the shore - strange there are no actual clouds blanketing the lan, Jana takes a deep breath. "Looks like we have some wonderful weather waiting for us to land."

"Wonderful," Tali deadpans with a huff and nudges Jana's arm with a knuckle. "Come on. I'll help you into your armor."

Nodding, eyes still on the shore, she follows her friend across the deck and down the stairs. The next deck is already bustling with the large number of people Jana remembers being on the previous shore party, all knowing their duties and tending to them without distraction. When the two women reach the stairwell down, numbers of men and women are thicker and crowd the walkways, but move like the current of a river, ever moving.

Even the horses seem to feel the rush in the air, reckless and neighing in their stalls on the deck, but Jana is surprised and impressed that the animals haven't turned into an all out stampede or injured one of their attendants. If anything, they seem as impatient as their human counterparts for shore and, if Jana considers it, perhaps they want off this damn boat just as much as she does.

"Hey," Jameson greets, half of his own armor being strapped on by one of the crew Jana doesn't recognize. "Heard we're almost to shore." He jerks his chin towards where he's cleaned her armor with the same oils as their own, metal ones. _Not the best, but better than nothing._ "Got yer things ready. Weapons are wrapped up in that leather roll." He grunts when the hold of his armor's buckles are testing by the aid yanking on his chest plate hard enough to shake Jameson. "I'll help you strap 'em on."

Nodding in thanks, Jana wordlessly strips down to her underthings with little care for watching eyes. Eyes that are most likely paying more attention to getting ready to dock than the strange woman from another universe stripping down. She then gets into her undersuit and begins strapping on the pieces with the efficiency of muscle memory as Tali tries to figure out the best way to strap her bow and it's arrows to her back.


	8. Chapter 8

Returning to the top deck of the Normandy is truly when Jana realizes just how accurate the crew was when they assured her the ship was the fastest in the water. Out at sea, she wasn't able to completely grasp their speed. However, seeing how large the land mass they're heading for now seems in just the time it took her to get kitted in her armor and set up with her new - and old, useless guns because she just can't break the habit - weapons, she can admit how wrong she was.

Jon is already in his own suit of armor, most likely suited up in his Captain's Cabin on this deck, and standing at the ready uptop beside Joker at the helm. When his eyes fall on Jameson with Jana and Tali in tow, he smiles and motions with a wide armed wave to join him. "Come up here! I want you to see us come into dock!"

Jana looks between her friend and their guide, catching a grin on Jameson's face as he shrugs and says, "Go for it. I'll make sure we're ready with the horses and get my own armor on." Roughly patting her shoulder, he lumbers back down the stairwell with a hurry to his step now that his charge has been handed over.

It still feels strange to be at such a loss on a _Normandy,_ looking to another for orders after so long leading atop the lonely chain of command, but she can't entirely complain. For once since before she can remember, she can fight without the burdens of being everyone's unworthy savoir. Instead, she can support and fight for a man that seems much more cut out to lead a war against a nightmarish foe.

Jon seems a better hero than herself, but that suits her just fine because she will gladly hand over the torch to someone not deemed to fail as miserably as she had.

As they take the last few steps up to the helmsman's deck, Jon smiles and gives a nod in greeting. He speaks, but the loud crack of thunder drowns out his voice. Instead, he looks up to the sky and narrows his eyes at the cloudless sky as the roar dies down to a rolling rumble.

"That… doesn't seem like normal thunder," Tali says, looking at the sky with a slight turn. She looks to Jana. "Right?"

Nodding at her friend's accuracy despite her sparse experience with planets' weather, Jana looks to Jon. "Is that normal?"

"Only for magic." He glances her way and smiles reassuringly. "Don't worry. I don't remember Corrupted using magic, so odds are it's not that."

"So what _is_ it?"

He hums and scratches at his jaw. "It's obviously a mage, or mages. I don't remember Cyona Fort ever housing them, but they could have bolstered their numbers." He frowns slightly, not needing to say just why that would be. Jana understands full well, and hopes, that someone would have headed the warnings of Reapers.

"I just hope they're friendly," she says, staring out towards the stone fort resting just a short ways from the shore. She catches Jon's nod of agreement beside her as she glances towards his version of Traynor approaching with a small disk. "New toy of yours?"

He chuckles and takes the disk, slightly bigger than his palm, but still able to fit in his hand. Turning to give her a better look, she finds that, where she thought it was merely a bronze mirror, the silver surface doesn't reflect any sight back. She raises a quizzical brow, wondering if this may be another type of magic relic much like EDI's fountain, and he smiles.

"This is EDI's looking glass." He shifts it to a strap on his armor, looping it through the spiraled latch on the convex 'looking glass'. "This way, she can learn from our experiences out there, but still be able to help the Normandy. Isn't that right, EDI?"

"Yes, Jon." Like the fountain, the looking glass' surface shifts colors as she speaks. "This will also ensure direct communications between the Normandy and your men ashore."

Thunder cracks again as the crew aboard the Normandy rush to pull in the rest of the sails, Jon calling out directions and assistance across their numbers. Jana watches in amazement, never really seeing the way man can manipulate the winds to move across the seas in anything but vids or read in books. Even with the last of the massive sails folding in on itself, the Normandy moves towards the wide, wooden dock extended out into the darker waters between their ship and shore.

Looking down over the side of the barriers of the ship, she watches the ship's hull slow in its cut through the crystal waters until it finally slows to a crawl, then drift. At this angle, she doesn't see the anchor lower, but distantly hears the heavy clangs of its chain sliding along the lip of the hull before falling into the sea with a plunk. Not moments after, she hears the hold doors - large enough to admit horses and equipment, but small enough so as not to leave too large a weak spot - slam open and the gangplanks thunk against the wet dock.

"Well, looks like we're here," she says to no one in particular and Tali makes a sound of agreement beside her as the quarian leans over the railing to look down into the waters. She's always had a fascination with seeing the sea life in the calmer waters, but Jana has been too busy throwing up her meals to really take in the sights. Just as well, she figures. "You ready?"

"Keelah, I don't know…" She looks up and her eyes are widened slightly and her hands wring in worry. "Are we crazy for doing this?"

"Yes." At Tali's look, Jana chuckles and looks towards the silhouettes of large birds in the sky a short ways further inland. "But that's part of the adventure, right? Doing something crazy, saving the world?"

Tali huffs at the jovial tone and narrows her eyes, shaking her head. "Bosh'tet."

"Now, now." Jon walks up behind them, his heavy boots giving his approach away. _Guess there's no such thing as sneaking here. All the same. Was never one for it, myself._ "No need for that, Tali." Chuckling, he motions towards the fort in the distance over a grassy rise. "That's our destination, Cyona Fort."

Jana nods and turns to follow behind him as he heads towards the stairwell that will take them down. "What do you think waits for us?"

"Judging by the lack of battle, it should just be the guardsmen, maybe a bigger force if they are preparing." He shrugs his heavily armored shoulders, the move barely visible in the low lantern light of the ship's interior. "But I'm more interested in our magic users. The power of electricity isn't an easy one to wield. It's unpredictable, dangerous." His head dips under a beam on the lowest step before stepping down into a bustling cargo hold. "We could use someone, or someones, like that."

"You hear that?" Jameson, fully armored and carrying that massive hammer of his on his back, walks up and nudges Jana's shoulder. "Sounds like we get to meet ourselves some mages." He leans down to mock whisper. "Be careful, some aren't too cheery to us 'low folk'."

"I take offense," Liara, adjusting her robes as she leads a pair of crewmen carrying Ashlin's form - which actually manages to look a bit better considering the lack of true medical treatment aboard the Normandy.

Sure, she still looks really bad and Jana worries about getting to this Citadel City on time, but whatever the healers did was really good work. Cholen, when Jana had gone to her after each of her training sessions, was more ready to give oils, salves, or drink to ease the soreness in her muscles, but Jana heard word about the ship that Liara was to thank for Ashlin hanging on. Thinking about what she remembers of her own Liara T'Soni, healing may not be too far out there for the asari.

"Ah, come down, woman." Jameson grins and wraps a heavy arm around Liara's shoulder. "I said _some_ , not all."

She rolls her eyes and gently shifts his arm off before waving the stretcher crew forward. "I must tend to Ashlin and the golem."

"The what?" Tali looks between the three, finally glancing at Jana and getting nothing but a wide eyed shrug.

"Golem," Jon answers, giving Liara a nod to continue with her work. As she leaves, Jameson takes to helping with the horses and Jon leads the way out of an open hatch. Walking down the gangplank and turning to them as they reach the docks, he motions a cart being hooked up to a horse with the apparent 'golem' covered by a tarp. "Golems are created by our hand and given life through magic. They are made of the earth, stone usually because of its strength." Putting his fists to his hips, he sighs and shakes his head. "Their creation is also forbidden. Giving life to something is deemed against certain peoples' gods, and the possibility of said creations turning towards violence and chaos-" He stops and clears his throat, glancing Tali's way before quickly looking away. "Let's leave it at that."

"What?" Tali steps forward, laying a hand on his chest and pushing slightly to make him turn. "What is it? Is…" Realization hits by the tension suddenly in her shoulders as she steps back and Jon frowns. "Did… did your quarian people do it?" When he ducks his head and gives a curt nod, she curses under her breath. "Why is it the same no matter what?"

"Tali." Jana steps forward and lays a hand on her friend's shoulder. Without a word, Tali turns and crosses her arms, stepping close to lay her head on Jana's own armored shoulder.

"Those damn bosh'tets," she whispers before exhaling heavily.

It takes Tali a moment of being in Jana's arms before she nods softly and steps back, turning to Jon. He doesn't mention her upset over nothing seeming to be different here than back home, and merely dips his head in understanding.

"Jon!" Jameson comes down the docks, throwing a thumb over his shoulder back towards the group of horses and men that will join them on their journey across the land. "We're ready."

"Do you need a moment?" he asks both Tali and Jana, and one looks to the other before Jana lets Tali be the one to decide.

"No. I'm okay." She breathes out and shifts the bow on her back. "I can't change what happened, but maybe my knowledge with the geth can help my people here."

Jana smiles, never putting it past her friend to ever consider the quarian people in this realm to deserve her care just as much as her own back home. Does she doubt that Tali would rather be with the people she knows? Of course not, but Jana also knows that Tali isn't one to let her sadness and loss keep her from helping anyone, let alone a quarian people that have gone through the same difficulties.

Following the men towards the horses, Jana knows what comes next. Sure as she suspects, Jameson stop at a large brown horse and turn to her, expectation on their faces. Why in the world they think she can ride this beast is beyond her, but like hell she's just going to hop on without qualms. The last time that happened, she barely managed to stay on - and she's pretty sure the horse wasn't all too happy to be held onto for dear life.

"You're kidding."

"Jana, we need you to ride." Jon smiles and pats the horse's rear before petting it. "Don't worry, she's a much smoother ride than the last one we put you on."

She rubs her brows with a heavy sigh. "And if I fall off and break my head open?"

"Come on, I bet you've fallen from worse heights."

Tali laughs and nudges Jana. "Come on, Shepard. Consider this, what's it called, karma?"

"For what? I never dropped you."

"No." Tali gives a stern look. "But those Mako rides were no joke."

Jana opens her mouth to speak, but stops. "Not the same thing."

"You can always walk," Jameson pipes in, shifting the hold on the horse's reigns. "I'm sure she won't mind."

"Funny," Jana deadpans, just thinking about the amount of kilometers she's in for. Sure, she has had some pretty long treks, but she doubts as far as this group plans. Taking a final look at the horse, then the group of people practically breathing down her neck for a decision, Jana sighs and nods. "Fine. Fine!" She throws her hands up and looks at the horse in the big, brown eye. "Please don't kill me, yeah?"

Jon chuckles and kneels down to offer a boost. "Normally, we get on using the stirrups, but I'll give a boost this time."

"I would hate to see how long it takes me to do _that_." She chuckles nervously. "We have all day, right?" Jon chuckles and shakes his head once before jerking his chin to his hands in what feels like a final request.

Rubbing her neck, Jana moves forward and stares at the saddle like it's a contraption from another universe. _Well, is literally is_. She doesn't want to hurt the horse in grabbing the wrong thing, but she also doesn't want to fall on her ass. Looking to Jameson in silent question, he grins knowingly.

"Grab the front of the saddle where it has that lip." She reaches for the center-front of the saddle where she finds a place to hook her fingers under. "Yeah, right there. Now grab the back in a similar spot. Yeah. Now pull. Put your back into it!"

She snorts and steps up on Jon's hands as she pulls her upper body up. She dangles a bit before one of them sets her left foot into the saddle - which is a bit awkward since she has to cross over the foot that's actually closest to the stirrup. Using that leverage, she pushes her right leg up and throws it over the horse's side. Tali then helps that foot into the stirrup and Jon smiles.

"See? Was that so hard?" He laughs at her narrow eyed glare before turning to an amused Tali. "Ready? I got one for you too."

Tali stills and her eyes go wide. "I… I don't."

He smiles and lays a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry. We have a saddle that'll work for you." He goes quiet for just a moment before his throat bobs with a heavy swallow and he nods once. "It's… yeah."

The slip doesn't seem to be picked up by the other two, but Jana knows it well enough because she's done it. Unconsciously, her hand lifts to her throat in attempt to touch her ring, but Jameson handing over the reigns stops her. She nods and takes them as Jon leads Tali towards a slimmer, much more agile looking horse.

Watching Tali get onto her own horse, it seems like the quarian doesn't have as much trouble hopping on as Jana had. Perhaps it's the lack of heavy armor or, as she mostly believes thanks to comparing their dancing, Tali's fluid and limber nature instead of Jana's more clumsy rigidness. Still, the task doesn't come without some challenges on Tali's part, but they are soon fixed with Jon's help.

 _They go good together_ , Jana thinks as she watches Jon say something to make Tali hunch her shoulders in a blush. She noticed the look on his face when he spoke of the saddle, definitely made for a quarian with how comfortable Tali looks, and saw the pain in his eyes, but Tali seems to make him happy, help him forget.

Though she doesn't want to admit, she thinks that his lost look, posession of a quarian saddle, and knowledge of Tali's name back when they meant based solely on her voice all lead to a very particular end. All Jana can hope for is that Tali is not just some replacement in his eyes. She'll make sure of it.

Her horse automatically follows the group as they start to walk towards the fort. Thinking she knows enough from vids, Jana kicks softly at her horse's side to try and cut through the crowd and towards the group of Tali, Jon, and his 'ground' crew. The horse moves with a start, jerking, but she manages to stay on and barge - as politely as possible - through the crowd of non combative crewmen towards Jon.

As she comes up beside him, however, he doesn't immediately acknowledge her. Instead, his eyes are on the sky further ahead towards where she saw the big birds circling. Where there were a handful, only two remain, and they seem to be worked up about something as they swoop and makes sounds loud enough to start to be heard from where Jon's group is moving closer.

"What are those things? They don't sound like any bird I've heard." Jana curls her lip in discomfort at the cawing wail that comes from the forms starting to gain better shape, but still black against the bright sky.

"Harpies."

"What-ies?" Tali looks between him and Jana, and the redhead can't believe she just heard what she think she did.

"Those aren't real." Still, she questions the truth of that, glancing back towards the sound of bird-like screams and sharp cracks of thunder. "Right?"

"They are," he says with a roughness to his voice and slight kick to his horse to speed up. "And they're dangerous. We need to help whoever's down there."

Without question, Jana kicks her own horse towards Jon and he barrels over the hill. Between themselves and Cyona Fort is a single person - turian by the silhouette - standing on a flattened area of the field with a pack of strange creatures lying dead at his feet. There are four by the count, five as a bolt of lightning flies from his hand and into one of the harpies overhead to sending it crashing down.

Passing over the closest body, Jana's eyes widen in shock at the sight. Big as a man, with black wings that would easily span over the horse she rides, there's a strange mix of vulture and… woman. Feathers line it's back from back of a very humanoid - or asari, considering the similarities - head to the tail, leaving a female's bare breasted, but disfigured, chest. Its stomach returns to that of a bird, but it's legs are a disgusting twisting of a normal woman's arms and hands into legs big and strong enough to grasp onto victims.

Still, worst of all was it's head. A hooked, jagged beak didn't connect to a bird's face, but that of a woman, scowling and wicked. Age was set into the beast, turning whatever feminine looks it might have had into gruesome hags of bird and woman. To see it, and others now coming into view on the ground at their horses' feet, and hear its piercing cries still in the air, it isn't hard to imagine the dangers they bring.

Looking up to the sound of a crash, Jana sees the final, much larger harpy fall to the ground, many of its feathers singed and body bleeding from wounds most likely cause by this turian's magical lightning. Without pause, it tries to climb to its feet, screeching at the turian now walking towards it, an almost swagger of victory to his step.

Seeing him lift a three taloned hand up, Jana watches as sparks of white hot electric tendrils wrap themselves around his fingers. Her eyes widen as the wisps bundle into a full ball of power, the sight better than watching a biotic as this is an actual force of nature harnessed, controlled, and shot forth as the turian unleashes it on the creature. It howls, and Jana flinches at the sound, but she can't look away from the beast as it arches, bolts of lightning wrapping themselves around its body. It thrashes for just a second before falling still with a loud thump, beak thrown open and body smoking from the burns over its body.

As the others on horseback slowly approach, Jana takes in the man, armorless, shirtless, and covered in blue and black patterns tattooed into his plates much like a colony marking. She can't let herself believe she sees similarities, thinking it's just because he's tattooed in blue on silver plates, but it's hard to when she watches him remove a dagger from his belt, kneel down with plates and muscles on his back flexing, and start to rumble a growling tone as he starts to remove the monstrosity's head.

Her hopes that she was wrong are shattered when he glances over his shoulder and turns, harpy head in hand, to look at their group with familiar, crystal blue eyes. Even tattooed, unclothed, wielding the power he has, and covered in that beast's blood, she cannot stop herself from choking on her breath at the sight of him.

"Garrus?" she whispers, voice weak and cracking through the name.


	9. Chapter 9

"Garrus!" Jon throws open his arms, smiling widely from atop his horse. "I didn't know you took up hunting." He chuckles as this Garrus wipes his blade on his dark black, barely hanging on, trousers.

Completely unarmored save for a single gauntlet made of jagged, overlapping plates and matching armored boots up his lower legs, this Garrus is intimidating to behold. Jana has seen some of what this world has to offer to any man or woman that so much as steps outside their door, and here's this turian, armed only with a dagger and electricity flowing from his hands. There's also something in those crystal eyes beneath the war-like paint slashed over his face that sends shivers down her spine when the tattooed turian scans her, not hiding his blatant up and down examination.

Eyes locking on hers, he answers Jon. "Have to make coin somehow." Finally, he turns from her and to the real Shepard of this world, leaving Jana to release a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding under Garrus' gaze. "What are you doing? Saving the realm again?"

Jon laughs and nods, giving a quick gesture to the - what Jana considers - combatives of the Normandy crew to follow him. Slowly, they follow Garrus as he leaves his now headless kill in the move towards his own, large enough to hold a turian, horse. Jon waits for the turian to bag the bloody harpy head before becoming serious.

"Garrus. It's begun. The Corruption is here and it won't be long before it covers the land."

"And you want anyone who can fight to join you." Garrus hums and turns back from his horse where he's tied the bag to his saddle. "Killing anything that's thrown in your way?" He smirks with a low growl and nods. "Can't let you kill those _fututors_ without me."

Jon laughs as Jana frowns slightly in confusion. She may not know what the untranslated word is, but she's pretty damn sure that it teeters on the more profane spectrum of the turian language. According to her husband, turians didn't really translate their profanity due to the thought of not wanting to seem any more crude than most believed them to be because of their militaristic nature.

At the time, she hated the fact that, after thousands of years together, the three council species still held prejudices. It didn't bode well for humanity no matter how long they were in the community or how hard they fought to prove themselves more than violent, greedy pyjaks.

Yet, seeing this Garrus as someone different than the man she fell in love with soothes the ache of seeing a familiar face - minus the more tribal stripe of blue across his eyes and cheek fringe and black dashes over brows and cheek plates - and hearing that deep timbre of his voice. Had he been the same, she doesn't think she'd still be sitting atop this horse and not sobbing at the stranger in her husband's body's feet.

Her reach for the ring beneath her armor seems to have not gone unnoticed as she catches Jon's eyes on her in her peripheral. Instead of pity, as she expects, a sort of understanding and sadness fills his eyes that makes her wonder if, perhaps, there is something more to his immediate recognition of Tali by just her voice. Could there be some kind of familiarity between the two Shepards that's been showing, if only she paid closer attention?

If the easy friendship - and something more peeking over the horizon - between Jon and Tali can be explained by some sort of connection across time and space, worlds and realms, then maybe there is something to this Garrus. There could be some of the man she loves deep down for a connection, but not become a carbon copy.

She doesn't think she can take getting to know the exact man she fell in love with and lost all over again. Not only would it feel like a sort of betrayal, an attempt to simply replace the piece of her heart long broken away, but the pain of seeing his face exactly as it has always been without the immediate realization of their bond would break her. She would never be able to pull herself to earn the love from a man she held in her arms all those time, she could never have a love like that with just a copy of him, but she could try and open up to a version of him already proving himself to be so much different.

She might be able to look past the similarities to see that which makes this tattooed Garrus different, and learn to stand side by side with him in battle without reliving the loss. She'd be useless otherwise.

The sound of leather creaking and chime of metal against itself pulls Jana's mind from her thoughts and to this Garrus seating himself upon his large black horse. He looks to her, seemingly still trying to figure her out of the ordinary appearance, before pulling the reigns of his horse towards a tower just over the hill and towards the tree line.

"I have coin to collect from the Captain at Cyona," he says as he starts to walk his horse away from them. "You're heading towards Citadel City, no doubt."

Jon, leading the others, urges his horse into a trot to catch up and walk beside Garrus. "That's right. We have wounded and we need to let the Council know about the Corruption."

Garrus snorts derisively, obviously not all too keen on the Council. " _Flocci non faccio de Council_." He waves a hand in the air before chuckling and glancing at Jon. "But you and yours seem to."

"You're right," Jon says with a stern look towards the horizon. "I _do_ give a damn."

"And you?" He jerks his head towards Tali on the opposite side of Jon. "Or you?" Garrus introduces Jana to the conversation as he turns to and narrows his eyes at her before taking her in with a tilt of his head. "You don't seem to belong here."

She frowns at the comment, uncomfortable with the idea that the very man she loves could say such a thing. However, she must remind herself, this _isn't_ the Garrus she knows. Clearing her throat, she nods curtly. "My name is Jana, and that's Tali. And you're right. We, technically, don't belong here."

"They're from another realm, Garrus," Jon explains for her, the idea still something so new and one she is working on fully believing even now. "They have faced the Corruption before. They call them the Reapers."

Garrus' mandibles flick down once. "Explains the strange armor. Doesn't look like it'll do _faex_ against the Corruption or its forces."

"We'll be getting them something else, along with weapons, at Citadel City."

"Good," the turian nods, not looking to Jon as he speaks.

Their group's horses walk through the grass and occasional puddle of mud in quiet, stepping over the few dead creatures Garrus had killed until they got into the open field directly outside the fort and the small town at its wall. It was then that Jana tried to break the silence the others seemed content with.

"So… Garrus," she starts, pulling his attention - and those same piercing eyes - to her. "That was some impressive work back there. That's magic, right?"

"Yes."

She rubs her shoulder and tries again. "I think I remember Jon saying lightning isn't something easy to… wield?" He nods slightly, rumbling lowly as if urging her to continue, and she gets the small feeling that this man isn't necessarily one for talking. "I don't know much about magic, but, if it is supposedly hard, then you must be pretty damn good."

"Tends to happen with some _irrumator_ uses sorcery to try and harness the uncontrollable power to make you into a weapon."

The tone of his voice is sharp, and Jana can't help but think of her own universe's Jack. As a child, Jack was tortured, tormented, and isolated in order to harness the full potential of biotics in humans. She became bitter, angry, and, in the end, scared of everyone for her past taught her nothing but betrayal and pain. Could this Garrus be an embodiment of the Jack she knew? His story sounded so much like her own and, as with the biotic, it would explain his coldness towards her as an outsider.

 _What does that mean for others I haven't met yet? How much else is different than I remember beyond the changes of swords instead of weapons, seaworthy ships instead of spacefaring ones, and magic over biotics?_

 _Could it actually, maybe, make a difference for them?_

She loses herself in the sound thumps of the horses' hooves on the densely packed dirt of a path worn into the grass from multiple passes. It must be a path from the dock to Cyona, one they hadn't traveled on at first in lieu of the straighter path through the tall grasses, and adds to the reason why those flying monstrosities needed to be killed. Those harpies were a danger to anyone passing without the ability to fight like the warriors around her. Even she, in her current weaponless state, would be hard pressed to defend against flying attacks from a flock of them.

Seeing the trees grow thicker in the nearer distance and grasses give way to small fields of crops, Jana looks to her friend opposite of Jon. Tali seems lost in the sights, but somehow must feel Jana's eyes as she turns back, studying her. After a moment, the quarian's eyes narrow in a smile behind her mask with an emotion Jana can't quite place without vocal cues.

Jana can't quite feel the same confidence in the situation as Tali, but perhaps her friend's comfort comes from having as close of a friend as she has in Jon. Even the word doesn't seem to quite fit whatever is building between the two. Whatever Jon's intent, Jana will have to address it soon. She can't let another loved one be hurt after living a life of loss.

Jon orders the majority of his men to wait back outside the small gathering of stone and wooden shacks, taking only Tali and Jana with him as he follows Garrus. Passing through the small, barely there village at the foot of the fort, she can't help but notice the way villagers - all asari - stare in awe and, in the handful of children's case, excitement. Their clothes are worn by hard work out in the fields and children run through the grass between the few homes barefoot, clothes dirty from play. Even the way they speak amongst themselves shows just how far from home she is as she hears heavy accents said in a way that reminds her of vids and not at all of the elegant, ever perfect asari of her own universe.

Garrus leads the way towards the fort, its walls towering over the small, wooden and straw roofed houses. From his position up front, Garrus leads the way to the large opening in the front of the fort, massive wooden doors swung open to show the inner grounds full of training asari soldiers. Jana can't help her staring at the women, buff and carrying armor just as heavy as Jon and Jameson's, it seems, and doesn't notice Tali has moved up beside her until the young woman's voice calls through her distraction.

"This place keeps getting more and more unbelievable," Tali says softly, just as amazed as Jana.

Jana nods, taking a deep breath and reminding herself that this, this reality, may very well be all they will ever know from this moment on. There may be no way back, even if they _were_ back at - what was it called - Maratown? Not to mention the fact that they definitely weren't going anywhere the further from that Prothean artifact they traveled.

Not like they could go back right now anyways. Especially not with the Reapers already taking over.

"Ah, hunter," a tall asari with a scar running across her nose and huge set of armor setting her apart from the others steps forward from a group of soldiers. With a wave of her hand, her armed women disperse, and she grins up at Garrus as he jumps down from his horse. "Happ'ly surprised you made it. Killed those bastards?" Her attention moves from Garrus' nod and to the trio that have held a few paces back. "I only agreed to one of you."

"They aren't here for the reward." Garrus literally shoves the bloody sack into the - presumably, Captian - asari's hands. "Here's your proof, the matriarch's head." The woman's face twitches at the designation, but Garrus continues, unperturbed of the asari's distaste of the word usage. "You want more proof, go out and see the _canaes_ for yourself."

The Captain is quiet for a moment, scanning Jana and the other two. Her eyes stay on Tali for a moment before she sighs, shoulders heaving. "Aye." Reaching back, she unties a pouch from her belt and holds it out to Garrus. "As we agreed."

Garrus rumbles as he opens the bag and shifts it in his hand, the coins within clinking as they shift against each other. He is silent a moment, and Jana fears there will be hell because he hasn't been paid enough, but he nods curtly. "Good." Turning back, he approaches his horse beside Jon's. "Let's go."

Jon nods and lets Jana turn her horse around before following suit. "Jana. A moment?"

She can swear she feels her own horse slow, as if stopping her from escaping what she's sure is to be a serious conversation. Biting her lip, she looks to Tali for any excuse to get out of this, but her friend is unhelpful as she nods to Jon's request and hurries her horse back to the group. Garrus, however, takes a moment to examine Jon with a rumbling hum before flicking his mandibles and giving into the request, moving to join the others.

"Can we talk?" Jon frowns, but waits for her nod before continuing. "I wanted to… Well, I think I should explain how it is that I knew Tali was Tali in the beginning."

She nods. "That's right. You recognized her by her voice, which isn't all that easy when meeting quarians for the first time." Looking at the back of her horse's head, she shrugs. "At least I guess so. Don't know how the quarians seem here in your world." She closes her eyes to stop herself from rambling to try and cover her discomfort at the mere idea of sharing personal stories. She just doesn't know Jon well enough, even after training for hours on end together, to get into her own messed up life. "Look, it's nothing personal, but I don't really have anything deep and personal I want to say."

"That's okay. Will you let me talk?" Glancing his way, she catches another knowing look on his face. Finally, seeing no way out in his brown eyes, Jana nods reluctantly. If he wants to talk without her responding back in kind, then she can listen. "What would you say if I told you that I know what you're feeling?"

She opens her mouth to protest that, no, he has absolutely no idea, and fights not to make her situation all the more obvious by reaching for her ring. He stops her, however, with a sad smile and raise of his hand. "You don't have to answer that. I'm sorry. I said I wasn't going to push you and I just did."

He sighs and looks up to the sky before them. "This is hard, but… but maybe, if I'm guessing right, it could help. And I'd rather see a way to help someone if I can."

"Seems like that's not an easy thing now," Jana says, voice distant as she sighs and closes her eyes before tears. "Everyone was looking to me, will be looking to you, to save them. It'll all feel like nothing works."

"I know. All the more reason to see what is good in life." She snorts dismissively and he finally looks to her. "I lost someone I loved, too."

Jana freezes and scowls. "I highly doubt it's the same."

"Isn't it?" He doesn't flinch when she turns her glare to him and, instead, unties a small ribbon from his sword sheath. "This… this is how the quarian people here marry. Humans share jewels or something precious to wear, and quarians 'tie' themselves together. This is…" He frowns and rubs the lavender fabric between his fingers. "I lost my partner in Dromos Reftai, when we tried to defeat the Cursed Ones."

Jana doesn't really need more for realization to send a cold hand down her spine. "You… no." Yet, she can't fight the logic behind the possibility.

If she can see a second Garrus, then why wouldn't Jon have the same? Maybe she lost her husband in the same place he lost his wife, partner, or whatever term they use. Could he really be right in assuming they are the same?

Jon nods sadly and lifts the ribbon to his lips, holding it there for a moment before lowering his hand. "I lost my own Tali when a stray bolt struck her. I couldn't save her." He frowns. "I couldn't even collect her body and bury her." He takes a deep breath before looking towards where Jana's Tali speaks with Samatha as the woman leads a small cart full of ravens for communication.

"I recognized her from her voice, and I admit I cut throw my pain to speak with her because I thought she'd miraculously be the same, but… but I find myself happy to know that's not the truth." He huffs a laugh. "The Tali I knew joined me when she stole a golem's essence and found it had valuable information. She wanted me to pay for it, and had a high price too, but I managed to change her mind." Smiling, he tucks the ribbon into a small pouch on his saddle. "Turns out helping her by killing a group of attackers for that information convinced her."

Jana looks to her friend and nods. "It was similar to us, but I don't see how she's different."

"Tali was brash, quick to anger and one to act before thinking. Tiny as she was, she would be the first one into battle." _That's a huge shock._ Jana's eyes widen slightly, still not moving from her own Tali. "Tali, here, though, is different. Where my partner was quick on the draw, she is willing to consider the options, find a way to limit the loss from either side. She is open with her emotions, ready and willing to open herself to those she trusts. And she trusts easily." He chuckles, his voice taking a warm note. "Even here, she is concerned about others, about a people who doesn't know she exists." She feels his eyes on her and, looking to him, Jana can't help the hard swallow at his expectant and all too aware smile. "So believe me when I say I know, but never feel like you need to share the same with me."

She knows she shouldn't, thinks she can't possibly be ready, but hearing her own loss mirrored in the other man creates an urge. Something inside her builds the more he speaks of the differences between the woman he loves and, obviously, the woman he is beginning to love. She feels bound to burst, and closes her eyes against tears as she lets out a deep breath.

"I lost my husband." As if a heavy weight has started to drop, she can't stop the words from falling from her lips. "He was my everything, my confidant, the gun watching my back, and the one that I went to every time I needed to be something else besides the 'Savior'. But I was an idiot, I got sloppy, and…"

"You lost him." His voice is soft as he reaches over, offering a hand should she want it. She doesn't even feel herself move, but in the next moment, she's holding him to keep from drowning in the pain. "Is he different here?"

Of course he'd recognize the other version of who she lost and, though she wants to, she can't be all too angry with him. Instead, she nods softly. "Yeah. From what I can see, he is."

"Maybe that's a good sign." Confused, she frowns, but he squeezes her hand, smiling. "I still love my partner, but the Tali from your realm is like a whole different person. I don't feel pain when I am with her because she is not the same woman I fell in love with. Maybe that can be the same for you." Jon chuckles softly. "You just have to convince him to let down that wall."


	10. Chapter 10

The grasslands at the shore and encircling Cyona gave way to hilly riverlands the deeper the Normandy garrison traveled into the lands Jana had heard them dub Athenus. Sparse villages lined the weaving roads and paths over the rise of hills, through the throngs of lush trees, and across crystal clear bodies of running waters, but none held the aid for Ashlin that they seeked. For days they travelled on horse, camping only when it became too dark and treacherous to push their steeds onward, and Jana was growing frustrated with how little a grasp of distance traveled she had after so long with Jon and his men.

She had no idea how far from the shore and Cyona Fort they now were after three days travel, and no way of knowing how much further to expect the Citadel City to be. It slowly ground on her nerves to feel so uninformed, so useless without anything to add besides the amusement of others watching her continue to flail in her training. Jon insisted she and Tali, both, were learning and getting better by leaps and bounds, but Jana still didn't see it and, whatever he saw in her uncoordinated sword swings and shield coverage, she didn't know.

She tries to push her thoughts aside, however, as she swings her sword through the air at an imagined enemy. She can't remember how long ago the Normandy band stopped to make camp for the night here by the wide swell of a smoothly flowing river, but she knows she's been at this damn practice from the moment she helped unsaddle her horse. Since then, the sun has long since escaped from the sky and the moon risen amongst the rolling puffs of smoke from the camp's fires.

Try as she might, she couldn't, and still can't, stop her eyes from drifting to a man she knows from another life.

So different in appearance, this Garrus still shares many qualities with her late husband that she can easily see even though he remains distant from everyone and mostly silent throughout their days. From his sparse interactions with Jon, Jana's found this turian to be just as determined and steadfast in his beliefs as her own husband, even if, ultimately, those beliefs are startlingly different. Where he husband once was a man hellbent on bringing justice to a galaxy strife with corruption, this Garrus has no such noble goals. He chooses himself and those closest to him as those he will fight, and possibly die, to save.

Yet, both men allied themselves with someone they trusted. It's obvious in the way Jon spoke of him that Garrus had once opened up and let the man see a part of him that no one else has, and that that bond is still there in the way the turian seems less tense around the human leader. That this Garrus can trust in Jon the way Jana's own Garrus trusted in her sends panic through her heart for fear of seeing another trusted turian companion lost to this damn war, but she knows, just by looking over what's he's already done, that Jon will accomplish what she could never hope to do.

She knows that Jon will pull everyone in his world through whatever the Reapers can throw at them because he's different, stronger, and a better Shepard than Jana ever was or is.

Grunting, Jana swings again and, tired as she is, can't stop the momentum of the sword as it crashes to the ground between her feet. She manages to keep a hold of it, but it's weight only pulls her off balance enough to stumble and kick pebbles across the river smooth stones of the bank. The river, and her only companion, simply laps at the shore in its soothing melody, none the wiser to her blunder. No longer possessing the will to continue her futile efforts to become anything more than cannon fodder or detrimental distraction in this war, Jana lets the sword fall from her hand and onto the river worn rocks with a sharp clank.

Dipping her head in defeat, she sits on the densely packed rocks, carried across the land by this very river what could be - maybe even a hundred - years ago. She lifts her knees and drapes her elbows over them to just look out into the sluggishly moving waters, eyes catching the occassional fish going about its life without a care for the dangers of this world beyond whatever bigger fish decides to make them dinner. She envies them that oblviousness of the hells and horrors of greater sentience, of the constant push-pull of gain and loss, a give and take that never evens out in her favor.

The rumble of the rocks moving against one another draws her attention to a newcomer, one who hasn't - or doesn't want to - bothered to hide their approach in obvious attempt to be heard. If whoever it is has as much concern over her to make their presence known, then perhaps they wouldn't snuff at the idea that, for once, she wants to be alone. She's spent days riding side by side with stanger with known faces, own facade steeled against her expression giving face to her tortured and darkened thoughts, and she wants just a moment to herself. In her eyes, she deserves at least a few minutes to come to terms with the fact of her existence in a world where the man she loves exists as another person. Especially if it leads her to sobs, as have often threatened to fall late at nights where she has nothing but a cold tent and the ring around her neck to keep her company.

"Shepard?" Tali's voice is both a relief and sharp stab to the heart.

How can Jana come to terms with this place and the fact that a Garrus stands by Jon's side when her friend has grown so accustomed to life with this Normandy's crew and their commander? It all just feels like an awful reminder of how broken she's become that a woman who would give her life for her people back home has grown to accept their possible fate because of those she's grown to think of as family in such a short time with Jana's help. Here Jana sits feeling defeated and hopeless while Tali adjusts perfectly, looking past the dilemma of her immune system for now to, instead, enjoy this new and unbelievable experience.

It probably doesn't hurt that Tali also has Jon to talk to. The man might as well have replaced Jana, his care for the girl above and beyond what their sisterhood could give Tali.

Jana watches over her shoulder as Tali gets down into a sit at her side, extending her legs to cross at her ankles as Jana sticks to her position of intended defensiveness. The last thing she really wants to do is get into an inquiry of what's bothering her, not while she's chest deep in the thoughts of jealousness towards Tali and her ability to adapt.

"Food will be ready soon," her friend says, leaning back on her hands and looking out over the same river that had entranced Jana just before. "I'm going to try decontaminating some of it to see if my system can start to accept the food." She looks over and Jana can feel the girl's eyes on her, reading her better than anyone else - _still alive_. "You should come join us. I don't think you can do much more with how tired you are."

"I'm not hungry."

Tali shrugs. "I don't care. You need to eat." Shifting, she matches Jana's position, abandoning the river to turn her attention entirely to convincing Jana of whatever it is she's here for. "Have you thought about opening up to him?"

 _And that's why she's here, to dig in that dagger to remind me of the truth that none of this will be the same as before._

"I'm not talking to him. He's not my Garrus." Jana turns to her friend and frowns in frustration over having to explain this to Tali, of all people. "He's nothing like Garrus."

"That's not true."

"Oh? What? Have you been talking to him?"

Her words are sharper than she intended, but, instead of hurting Tali as she intended, the quarian merely lays down a knee on the rocks and crosses her arms, eyes narrowing. "Only as much as needed. You know Garrus isn't always one for conversation, even this Garrus. But that doesn't mean you can't get to know him." She sighs. "Did Jon tell you about me? The other me?"

"Yes," Jana says, looking down at the rocks between her legs. "It's not the same. I'm not okay with replacing one Garrus for another just because his is." That gets a reaction she didn't expect as Tali gasps in hurt, and Jana looks up to her friend to see Tali covering her masked mouth with a hand.

"You have no idea what he's thinking!" Tali scowls behind her mask, eyes tight and shoulders tense enough that her ire radiates off her in waves. "He told me about her and I'm nothing like her!"

"Wait… he told you? When?" Jana frowns in confusion, wondering just why a man would go to a woman and admit to not only knowing, but being married to, another version of her without automatically assuming that'd be his only reason for interest.

"A while ago. We were still on the Normandy when he told me about her." Her anger lessens a bit as she looks down and fidgets with a snap for one of her suit pockets. "I admit it was a bit weird to know about another me, but, if you think about it, I don't know why there wouldn't be when there was another Liara, Ashley, and Vega."

"And you aren't mad at him?"

Tali looks at her as it that's the most unneccesary question for this conversation. "Of course not. Why would I be?"

"Because he could just be using you to fill that void left behind from her death." Jana shakes her head at the lack of understanding and agreement in her friend's eyes or posture and looks back out to the water starting to darken with the disappearing sun. "He may say you're different, but you don't know if that's true."

Tali sighs. "Jana. When you lose a loved one and try to move on, aren't you still trying to fill that void left behind?" When Jana frowns and turns back to her, Tali continues. "This new person will never take the place in your heart, but they will heal the pain. No one says you can't find love again."

"And if it's the same person?"

"But I'm not." Tali shakes her head and motions herself with a hand. "He told me his partner was a theif, a rogue, and not at all like me. When I told him I replaced my father on the Admiralty Board, he told me that other me would have rather been enjoying the freedom of 'being her own woman'. He doesn't like me because I'm Tali, he likes me for me." Shyly, she ducks her head and wrings her hands. "I like him too, Shepard," she whispers.

Can Jana really let her own feelings about their situation taint her happiness for her closest friend? Could Tali be right? Could there be truth in her words? Could Jana really learn to love, if only she lets herself accept the possibilty that there's a chance to share her heart with another? Do his name and looks really matter, or is it the person inside that's been shaped by his experiences? Experiences that obviously differ from her husband.

 _Could it be so bad to at least get to know him, try to break through that wall he's built up as Jon said?_

Chewing her cheek, Jana nods softly. "I'm happy for you, Tali. But know that I will make him pay if he hurts you."

"Please," Tali says with a scoff and wave of her hand. "I don't need you to fight my battles."

Jana sees her friend's smile hidden behind her mask and reaches out to take Tali's hand, smiling. "And you're right. I should at least try to open up, try to take this Garrus as who he is and not who my Garrus was." Thinking about the physical differences and wondering what else could make him a different man, she chuckles. "You know, I often wonder if it's just me or if you see a bit of Jack in him too."

Tali snorts and laughs, nodding her head rapidly enough to make her hood bob. "A little? Are you kidding? I see Jack all over him." Tilting her head with a chuckle, she drops follows suit when Jana lets her legs relax against the stones. "He's got her attitude and _obviously_ the tattoos."

Jana chuckles and smiles, looking out to the water and blushing. She lets Tali's hand go to brush some hair from her face. "I don't know. I kinda like them."

Tali snorts again. "You would."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Still, Jana chuckles and smiles at her best friend, her sister from another species. "I can't help that he looks good with tats all over and wonder how he'd look _under_ those trousers." She smirks when Tali dips her head in embarrassment and bumps her with a shoulder. "Come on, tell me you don't think the same of Jon."

"Stop it," Tali whispers, giggling under her breath.

"You don't fool me." Letting out a deep breath, she looks up to the star covered sky. "It really is beautiful here. I never considered just stopping to enjoy the scenery whenever we would land on planets." She shrugs at a memory still bittersweet on her tongue. "I kinda took Mindor for granted as a kid, but I can still remember what it looked like sometimes." She chuckles, smiling at the memories of running through the fields and hiding from her chores in the crops. "In just a few weeks, I've already seen the type of nature we'd had to have gone to multiple planets to see."

"And we still would only see it from our work, out of the shuttle or Mako's windows," Tali agrees. "We'd never be able to just enjoy it." There is a comfortable quiet and Jana can believe that Tali, too, looks to the stars. "I've never seen Rannoch, only through blurry vids and told in stories passed from our ancestors, but I imagine it would look like this. I almost wonder if it's bad to like this place better than a homeworld I may never have seen in my lifetime." Jana looks down just in time to see Tali watching her. "Is that horrible of me?"

Jana shakes her head, smiling a warm gesture of assurance. "Never. This may very well be your home now. There is no worries in taking pleasure in it, in letting it make you happy. Your people may have lost Rannoch hundreds of years ago, but you have gained a home in this world, in these people." Grabbing her sword at her side, she climbs to her feet and looks down at her friend. "And, maybe when I get my ass in gear and open up to them, I can have friends in this world after losing so much." She frowns and admits her failure. "After messing everything up back home."

Tali stands slowly, staring at her a moment with an emotion that Jana can't place, before stepping forward and hugging her. "You did all you could, more than anyone else could have done." She shakes her head against Jana's chest. "Never think that you failed anyone."

Jana fights back tears before nodding and squeezing her sister tighter. Parting, she smiles and jerks her head up towards the glow of the fires and sounds of boisturous conversations. "Come on. Let's go see what's for dinner."

Tali snorts. "Dextro paste and a sick of stomach ache when I try to sample the 'local cuisine'."

Climbing up towards the camp with a fresh mind and light heart, Jana smiles at the joy that flows through the Normandy garrison. That such a simple thing as eating their spoils from today's hunt warms her heart and boosts her courage to begin to open up. Taking in all the sights of the camp, she wonders just how well the others will take the woman from another realm that, until now, has remained quiet and distant.

Tali leads through the throngs of bonfires, conversations, and makeshift gambling games thrown up for entertainment between groups. Distracted as they are, there are many of the crew that stop and offer a nod or lift of a tankard, wineskin, or ancient canteen. At first, Jana assumes the attention is all paid to her friend, but, soon, calls of greetings with her own name interlaced reach her as they pass and she stares wide eyed in confusion. They don't seem bothered, returning to their meals and fun as quickly as they stopped to say hello, and Jana is left to give mumbled words of thanks and returned greeting before Tali tugs her onward.

Closer to the center of the camp lies a larger tent meant for strategic gatherings and the more militant duties of Jon's men. Some which includes Liara's attempts to counteract the devestating effects of Ashlin's injuries and hers and EDI's examinations of the golem creature left from what Jana assumes is this world's version of Cerberus. It is at the foot of this that Jon himself and his closest crew, cheering on stories and sharing in a roasted boar set over a fire.

Seeing them, Jon grins and raises a tankard to their approach. "There you both are! Come! We're almost ready to dig in!"

Jana chuckles at his ever present cheer and readiness to include the two strangers from another universe, knows it is this ability to see the good in life that will help him keep his will to fight and lead through this war. Nodding, she holds out a hand to Tali to go ahead and sit at her place beside him as she, instead, takes a place at Jameson's left.

She happens to notice even Garrus is attending, though aloof and more interested in his drink than the conversation. Perhaps she might find a way into one of her own with him, but, for now, she decides to sit back, enjoy the company, and learn what it means to be one of Jon's crew.


End file.
